“Fuuuuck!” Arbor sat up screaming and sweating as he furiously checked his body with his hands. Quickly he found that his arm no longer hurt he could breathe easily as he was lying in his bed back beneath the tree. Soon after, Sol and Pona came through the front door to check on Arbor.

“How long have I been asleep for?” Arbor asked with a sleepy voice.

“Just one night. Don't forget that the medicine we have here will heal you a lot quicker than what you are used to back on your world.” Pona responded.

Arbor laid back down on his bed and took a deep breath, sighed, and then got out of bed. He got dressed and walk through is to senior sisters that were standing in front of them.

“Where do you think you're going to do?” Soul inquired.

“I lost. I am too inexperienced and too weak. To fall behind is not a sin, to be weak is. I have to train harder.”

Sol and Pol watch Arbor disappeared into the forest and start his daily tasks assigned to him. After he left the women walked over to the usual meeting table and sat down. After they did the figure of Mo Haoshe came out of the tree and joined them.

Sol recounted the battles that Arbor went through the previous day. After listening, the three discussed what areas Arbor needs to improve on and how they could help.

"It's a fact that he has the knowledge and skills at hand, but lacks practical experience. At this point I don't think it's good to send him out to train as that might scare him in general or have side effects we might not foresee. Also, I don't want him out of the forest too much until we don't have to question his survivability." Mo Haoshe paused for a second, "Now that he created his first battle skill, he needs to get familiar with it, strengthen it, and develop more diverse ones. Tell him to allocate some time to do this each day. Also, let Volcan know I have a task for him, but he doesn't need to hurry." Haoshe stood up and left, leaving Sol and Pona to themselves.

The next couple of months went by quickly and Arbor made vast strides in his cultivation. He reached the apex of the Body Fortification Realm and has one foot in the Foundation Establishment Realm. In addition, Arbor further refined his first spell, Universal Leaf. Not only did he improve upon the variation of each leaf so that their own power and versatility increased, he made progress in being able to adjust their size while they are in use.

In addition, the egg that Arbor has been incubating has developed a couple of large cracks that circulated it. By the progress made on the egg since he got it, Arbor speculated that it would take at least a year until it will eventually hatch.

During these couple months Arbor took a handful of trips to the forest area where he fought the monkeys, bear, and the beast. Of course these trips were under the supervision of Sol and Pona. Arbor found that the monkeys power improved just as much as his own. During his trips into the forest, Arbor fought the trio multiple times and came out in a draw more times than not. The beast broke through into the next realm. Thus thus, Arbor is no match for it. On the other hand, the bear did not show up during his escapades.

Arbor had a couple of close calls, but none that were as dangerous as his first one. Each and every interaction with the animals his battle senses improved.

After he had mastered the basics of the different fields of study from his predecessors about a month after returning from the forest he cut the time that he would study in half. He began to focus more on increasing his strength and cultivating.

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“Nine Hundred and Ninety-nine...One Thousand.” Arbor spit the sweat off the top of his lip after he finished striking the pillar in the cave. During these past few months he chipped away a pillar in the middle of the cave that he mined in. This pillar has been used as his punching bag. A few broken staves lay on ground.

Soon enough Arbor appeared at the entrance to the cave and made his way back to the small village where he was greeted by Volcan.

“Welcome back shorty!” Arbor waved from a distance. It appeared that Volcan was growing in size as he got closer. Arbor mused that his eyes were playing tricks on him tried to not pay much attention to it.

“Who did you just call short?” A giant sized Volcan suddenly towered over Arbor, who stared in amazement and horror at the mountain size first that came crashing down on him. The imprint of his body appeared on the ground once Volcans fist moved from the spot.

“Your mindset is too shallow and inexperienced. There is no restraint on the capabilities that cultivators can accomplish. Well, unless it goes against one’s natural affinities. Say, if you were to want to practice fire arts. But those are boring and too common.” Volcan returned to original size and crouched next to Arbor.

“In order for you to broaden your horizons we are taking a trip to one of the nearby cities.” Arbors limp body heard these words spoken softly. Before Arbor could recognize which direction he had gone he was dropped back onto the ground and instructed to clean himself up as they had arrived at the city.

Arbor straightened his clothes before looking up at the city in front of him. A golden archway standing three hundred feet tall and one hundred fifty feet wide. Black walls build of an unknown material stretched for an uncountable distance in each direction. Outside the walls are sand dunes that blend into the horizon. Thousands of races and species flocked into the city. Giants, two to three headed people, winged people, centars, humans bodies with animal heads, fish within water bubbles, besalisks, horned tribes, were just a small percentage of what Arbor could see and comprehend what they were.

“Where are we…” Arbors voice trailed off as he took in the new scenery.

“Pesak. It’s a fairly large city, but not known for anything special.”

Volcan brough Arbor out of his daze by dragging him along towards through the entrance. After Volcan paid the entrance fee to the city, vendors selling miscellaneous items from utensils to low class armor and weapons greeted Arbor. Street performs trying to make a living are using their magic power in various ways to attract passerbys. Seductive ladies hanging from windows are hollering at pedestrians with the hope of landing a good time.

Hours passed by before Arbor could make out the magnificent palace at the center of the city. Along the way he recognized that various cultures were spread out and changed to a more prestigious way of life the closer they got towards the center of the city.

Twelve broad, round towers form a protective wall on two sides of the castle and are connected by towering, firm walls made of dark grey stone. Small windows are scattered here and there around the walls in fairly symmetrical patterns, along with small holes for air movement and lookouts. A vast gate with large platinum doors protected by a handful of guards sits on the southside of the castle outer wall.

Just outside of the wall is an even larger structure akin to a coliseum from Earth. The difference between this one and the ones Arbor is familiar with is the multi layered structure. Multiple square fighting stages are stacked upon one another, with ample space in between for fighting. Shockwaves from the fights going on can be observed from outside the stadium, but they cannot be felt.

The chearish smile that filled Arbor’s face since he entered the city snapped into a look of confusion. A small itching to test his abilities mixed with fear started to turn inside of him.

Volcan looked towards Arbor when he heard a large gulping sound. “I...Im not..going to have to fight, am I?”

“That is up to you. Anything you want to do will be paid for by Tel..er me. So feel free to do as you please. We’ll be staying here for about a week. As for right now we are going to watch some quality entertainment.” Volcan explained with a devious smile on his face.