Silas stood at the top of the hill that overlooked the village. He had his on Reiko’s back and led him to the other side of the cherry blossom tree to look over the water. He took in the sight, the sunrise, the ocean laying peacefully in the morning stillness. The sunrise was a wonderful glow of orange and pink over the ocean.

“So you want a wind core, hm?” Silas looked down at Reiko and smiled.

Reiko nodded his head apprehensively. The boy didn’t want to upset his master. Not picking something more in line with his master’s element of metal meant he had to bring someone else in to help with martial training. Still though, Silas was smiling, so that meant he couldn’t be too mad, right?

Silas nodded his head. “You met my old friend, Kio, yesterday. She will help me. Your cultivation training will be done by me, though. She will just show you how to fight. Give you forms and we’ll both agree on a path for you to follow. As long as you agree to it, of course. I already have a few ideas. We’ll see the librarian later and see if they have the manuals we’ll need. Otherwise we’ll go up the mountain and I’ll pull some strings to get us access to that library,” Silas explained.

Reiko just nodded his head, unsure of what to say. He had never been to the sect on top of the mountain, only heard about it from others around the village and when Silas spoke about it. It sounded like a great place to learn. Not that he’d trade his master to go there, but it would be something.

Kio stepped up behind them and crossed her arms. She wore her classic sect robes, the deep green and black that told she was from the Sect of the Jade Mountains. Her long black hair was worn up today, held in place with some chopsticks. She stayed quiet and watched Silas explain everything while she tried to get a feel for her future pupil. Next to her in the grass, there were two buckets and a leather wrap. The buckets were full of water, one soapy one not.

“Now, though, before we do anything else. It’s time,” Silas announced and took a few steps away from his student. “Sit in your cultivator’s position.”

Reiko nodded his head and went to the ground. He sat on his butt with his legs folded under him, feet under the legs in lotus position. Reiko breathed in deeply, held it for a moment, and then released it as he put his hands on his knees. He took one last long look over the water and then closed his eyes.

Silas stood there and brought his hands behind his back, hand held wrist. He looked over at Reiko, his spirit reaching out and examining the boy.

“You’ve done well so far, creating the channels which your body will use to move and cycle the aura through your body. Now it is time to give your body somewhere to that aura, to hold your power. Concentrate on the aura of the world like you have been. Bring it into your body. Only this time, you need to bring in much more than you ever have,” Silas commanded.

“You’re going to channel everything you bring into your middle. Think of the area just behind your belly button. That’s where your core should be. Feel the gentle breeze on our hill. Coming down from the mountains and out into the ocean. Feel that breeze swirl around you and bring it into your body to form your core,” he continued.

Reiko nodded his head and began the process. Kio and Silas, both being in the spiritual realms of cultivation, could see the aura, not just feel it. They could see the white-blue aura of the world flowing to and in the apprentice. It all flew towards him like glittering dust on the wind, blowing in small circles wherever the wind danced towards him.

“Hold it Reiko,” Silas told him. “Up until now, you’ve let the aura go back to the world once you had your channel formed. Now you’re going to hold it in your midsection, where all the channels come together. You’re going to hold as much of it as you can and let it burn into your soul.”

Burn? Reiko heard the world and frowned a moment. Forming the channels felt quite literally like burning his soul. How bad would it feel if they exploded into a core into his soul? Sweat formed on the boy’s brow as he held it and he gritted his teeth. He could feel it circling around in his body, in his soul.

It danced along the edges of where he had his channels formed. It danced as the wind danced wherever it wanted to. He tried to hold it though and tried to contain it.

“You’re doing well, Reiko. You have this. I’m right here,” Silas encouraged him.

Reiko then yelled out, unable to hold anymore. It was a deep, guttural yell that had surprised Silas. He didn’t realize something so dark sounding could come from a boy so young. His eyebrows looked up, and he looked back at Kio, who just shrugged and watched Reiko. The boy felt fine, so neither of them were worried.

The apprentice yelled out once more and then fell to the ground, unconscious. As he laid there, his body exuded black sticky goo from every pore.

“Well, it worked,” Kio said and took a few steps back as she covered her nose.

Silas just smirked and crossed his arms across his chest. He looked over his disciple, who laid in the grass unconscious. The black goo covered his body like a thick sludge, and Silas smiled as his spirit ran over and through the boy.

“Looks like he was able to start out pretty good,” Kio said and nodded her head. “You did a good job with him. Firm foundation.”

Silas shrugged before replying. “It was all him. He would make cracks sometimes about wanting to do this part of it already, and I’d mostly just ignore him. He forged ahead and did what I told him to.”

Kio nodded along while she listened to her friend. “Well, you told him how. Good job Silas.”

Silas just shrugged again. “He’s not exactly the first person I helped teach. Remember? I was a teacher in the sect as well?” He stared at her.

She grinned and then looked back down at Reiko. “You know, shouldn’t he have woken up by now?” She frowned and watched over the newly minted cultivator. Her spirit now reached out with Silas’s sensing the boy.

“He seems fine, but yeah…” Silas mumbled and looked up at the sun. “He should be awake by now.”

They both took a step closer. Silas wasn’t sure if Reiko naturally woke or the pressure from both Kio and Silas’s spirits probing him pushed him. Reiko coughed and sputtered and sat bolt upright and his arms shot out and flailed about as he coughed and hacked. Silas grinned and folded his arms against his chest once more than he watched his apprentice grab at his gut.

“You’re fine,” Silas assured Reiko and reached down to put a hand on the boy’s shoulders. He clapped between his shoulders softly. “How do you feel?”

Reiko grabbed at his stomach and clenched it while he groaned.

“He should feel like he’s ready to take on the world with a core that size. Didn’t you only end up with like… a peanut?” Kio said and then grinned at her friend.

Silas frowned at Kio before he looked back down at Reiko. “Yeah, and you stink,” he said plainly.

Reiko looked up at his master in confusion. “Huh?” The boy hadn’t noticed the side effects of purging that much toxicity from his body until Silas said something. Then he looked at his arms and legs in disgust and gagged. “What the?!”

Silas and Kio laughed softly as Kio nudged both of the buckets over towards him with a boot. “Scrub yourself up Reiko.”

Silas grinned. “Don’t worry, I told your parents you’d lose a set of clothes.” He looked over the pants and shirt Reiko wore. “Speaking of, those pants and shirt aren’t fitting for you, anyway.”

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Silas stepped over to the packages on the ground in front of Kio and picked them up. When he turned, he watched Reiko scrub himself off with a heavy brush that was in the bucket of soapy water. “You sure you want to do that before you get your gifts?”

Reiko looked up to him, horrified. “Look at me!” the boy yelled in exasperation.

Silas smirked and nodded his head in understanding. “Yeah, fair enough. How about we move down to the water and you can do that properly?”

He and Kio were already headed down the hill to the rocky edge along the water before Silas was even done speaking. “Bring your soapy water,” he told Reiko.

The boy hefted up the bucket and found that it seemed much lighter than it should have been. When he lifted, he used the normal amount of strength, he figured he would need to lift a large bucket full of water. His eyes opened wide as he looked in shock when he lost some of the water and he had to adjust. “Okay then,” he mumbled to himself as he headed down to the ocean with his masters.

It didn’t take him long to wash himself with the soapy water and the ocean. He stood right in the small waves that crashed against the rocks and let himself be cleaned from the sludge that covered his body. While he did this, Kio waited a short distance away with her back turned. Silas stood over Reiko and watched to make sure nothing happened with the new cultivator in the rough morning waters. When Reiko went to reach for his clothes, which were still covered in muck, Silas held out a hand.

“Those clothes no longer fit your position,” he said and held a hand out to stop the boy. “Come up here out of the water.”

Reiko nodded his head and climbed up onto a rock in front of Silas before he looked at his master. His green eyes were confused, but hopeful. He was a proper cultivator now. He had his core, and although even he could tell himself it was empty, he had it. The power of the universe and the aether was his for the taking now.

Silas held out a package he held under his arm to his apprentice. It was wrapped in heavy plain brown paper and when Reiko took it, he could tell whatever was in the package was soft. The paper crumpled under his new found strength.

Reiko opened the string that held the packaging closed and found the heavy fine cloth. Silas held out his hand to take the paper from Reiko as he took out the new robes. They were simple brown and white robes that held no sect affiliations. They seemed like they were made of some fine cloth that Reiko couldn’t place, some sort of wool mixed with cotton? Reiko blinked and looked up at Silas.

Silas smiled softly and nodded his head. “You’re a cultivator now, and for the time, being a wandering individual one. Perhaps one day we can get you to join the Sect of the Jade Mountains, but for now you’re my student and I’m no longer affiliated with them.”

Reiko nodded his head and draped the robes over his body. The white inner robe first followed by the outer brown robe that looked more like a long, soft coat. He found some cloth that was fashioned for a belt and closed the outer robe around his waist.

“It also has a nice deep hood that will help you stay dry,” Silas informed him.

Reiko nodded his head and felt the warm cloth that now covered his body. It felt good. It was soft to the touch but had a heaviness to it that didn’t quite translate to how it hung on his body. It might have been since he had his core, or it might have been some special fabric, he couldn’t tell. He liked the way it hung loosely on him, though. It flowed and didn’t hinder his movements as the pair jumped from rock to rock and then to the shore, where Kio waited for them with her back still turned.

Kio turned around and looked at the pair when she felt them land on the rocky beach. She looked at Reiko and gave an approving nod. “They look good on you,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you, master,” Reiko answered and bowed his head with his hands clasped in front of him. A proper martial bow from the cultivator.

Kio smiled and returned the bow softly, but frowned when she looked at him. “Something about that. How about you call me…” she trailed off in thought. “How about we just stick to Auntie? Silas is your master.”

“Yes, Auntie,” Reiko said and offered her another deep bow with the command.

“Perfect,” she replied.

“Alright, anyway,” Silas interrupted them. He stepped over towards Kio and reached for the other package she brought with her. When he turned around, he stepped over towards Reiko and held it out for him.

“There’s one more thing for you,” he said and held the package out in both hands.

Reiko grabbed this new package and looked it over. While the last one was just wrapped in plain brown paper, this one was something else entirely. It was long and thin and instead of paper; it was a leather carrying case. The quality was some of the best he had seen his master use, and he knew that was a case for weapons. He had been apprenticing with Silas long enough now to know that.

He laid the leather wrap on the ground and unrolled it slowly. Reiko honestly did not know what could be in the weapons wrap. When he was training his martial abilities with Silas, they never used weapons. Silas had always made him do movements using open palm techniques. He knew the burly man used a war hammer that was bigger than Reiko was, and sometimes if Reiko showed up to the foundry early enough, he could watch Silas practicing his own martial poses and movements. They differed from what he had Reiko do.

When the leather was finally completely unrolled and Reiko lifted the piece of cloth that covered the weapons, he gasped. He looked up at his master and smiled. He always talked about how Reiko was built so differently than Silas was and would fight much differently than he did. Still, the two small hammers touched Reiko. He lifted one of them and examined it. While Silas’s hammer had a hammer on each side and was mammoth, these could be held easily in one hand and only had a hammer facing on one side. The other narrowed off into a sharp pick.

“This way, you’re still a hammer user,” Silas noted with a small measure of pride. The master figured his apprentice should show some traits their master had, even if overall they would have a different fighting style and path.

Reiko nodded and then squinted his eyes. Through the metal of the handle and into the hammerhead, he saw glittering red crystals through the metal. He gasped again and looked up to Silas, who nodded in confirmation.

“It’s the soul stone of that fire beast who terrorized the town last week. I broke it up and worked it into the hammer. Once you learn how, you’ll be able to push your aura into the weapon and use a fire attack. Combined with wind, it’ll be good,” Silas explained.

Reiko nodded his head and looked back at the hammers in awe.

“Master Silas! Master Silas!”

The voice came and knocked everyone from their moment. Reiko looked up and away from the hammers. Silas and Kio both turned and looked to where the yells came from. Silas spotted a boy who ran around the large hill where they had started this morning. He wore cultivators robes that were all black. The kids who studied under the town’s supposed master all wore plain black robes.

“Settle down, boy. What’s wrong?” Silas asked the young apprentice when he reached the rocks on the beach.

The messenger leaned down and put his hands on his knees to hold himself up and wheezed. “Sorry, sir,” he said between gasps.

Silas cocked his brow and sent his spirit towards the boy and then through him. He scanned the boy's presence and just sighed. He had a shallow core and was fire aura oriented, but his channels were flimsy and there were only a few of them.

“The Elders, they called a meeting. They request your presence.” he finally caught his breath and stood upright to look at Silas. His breathing was still heavy, but he could at least hold himself upright now and look the village protector in the face.

Silas closed his eyes and held back the sigh. Dealing with Master Yang would have been bad enough, but the Elders?

Ugh.

“Very well. Let them know I’ll be there in a moment. I need to finish with my disciple,” Silas commanded before he turned, not giving the messenger another thought.

Reiko knew the boy. He was one of the first in his age group to get his core. Kenji was always kind of jerk about it as well and was one of the ones who bullied Reiko and made fun of Silas for not allowing him to grow his.

Kenji nodded his head and trudged off, and tilted his head back in angst from having to go back through town to the Elder’s Hall.

“That is why I made you wait,” Silas said coldly to Reiko. “The boy could barely run through town without tiring.”

Reiko nodded his head before he gave a deep martial bow to his master. “Yes, Master, and thank you. For teaching me the best way and for…” he trailed off and motioned towards the leather wrap on the ground and the hammers.

Silas smiled and returned a shallow bow. “It’s my pleasure. Now I need to go see what these old self important fools want,” Silas griped.

Kio nodded her head when Silas looked at her. “No worries, I’ll get Reiko going on some basic movements and we’ll figure out his path later?”

Silas nodded and gave a faint smile. “Yes, please. Thank you,” he said and then wandered off towards the village proper.