Heading back to his room, Verus once again sat down and attempted the poison channeling technique. He felt much better now though, thanks to Warin’s intervention, and he was hopeful that he’d finally pull the technique off. A shift in his perception was exactly what he needed.

A few hours later, he was proven right. All of sudden, new understanding dawned within his mind and he managed to grasp the basic nature of poison ki. It was very different from human ki or sleep ki. Instead of smoothly flowing through the body, it seethed and lashed out, seeking to damage and degrade everything around it. Only tight control and constant movement could render it harmless.

As the heady rush of victory filled Verus, the power of the poison ki was drawn into the technique he was performing and channeled through the orb as the power within it was consumed. Unfortunately, there was no flicker of light, and Verus could feel that that he wasn’t attuned to poison ki. After all his effort, it was another failure. His excitement was replaced by an even deeper despair. Was he truly so talentless or was it the sect’s fault…

“Damnation and demon piss!” he swore vehemently as rage against all the world filled him, mingling venomously with his despair. A moment later, the anger faded, leaving him feeling hollow and weak. Blaming others wouldn’t help. A true ascetic worked with what was.

Chagrined, Verus shyly glanced around to make sure no one had heard him. His room was still empty though, which was to be expected. If this had been his room back at the mountain temple, he might have been overheard by the inhuman senses of an elder, and they strongly discouraged blasphemy. However, they were probably far less strict here. He imagined the spoiled nobles swore a lot.

Groaning, Verus leaned forward to place his head in his hands. He’d been feeling so sure of himself! Now, not only was he back to square one, but he had another problem. He had only a single red ki shard left. If he used it to refill his orb and didn’t find a strong attunement, he’d have wasted all his shards and would be unable to try any more channeling for the rest of the week. He hadn’t even absorbed any of the shards to fuel his own cultivation, which would put him at a disadvantage against everyone else when it came to ki power. Should he absorb his last shard? No, that wouldn’t do him any good.

His only other option was to gamble on a duel using the shard. However, he’d lose that shard if he dueled and lost, leaving him with no way to search for attunements until next week. Also, he had no idea who to even challenge. He hadn’t been paying attention to how strong his fellow disciples were. Most of the family scions would probably defeat him with ease.

Straightening his posture and taking a deep breath, Verus put himself through a quick mental exercise meant to clear his mind of distracting emotions. Wallowing in misery wouldn’t solve anything and giving in to despair was never an option. He needed to figure out what to do to reach his goals.

As a strained sense of peace washed over him, Verus decided to get up and go for a walk. Moving fit his desired state of mind better than sitting in his room, and a change of scenery might give him some inspiration.

It was late in the afternoon now, so the dormitory hallway was almost empty. There was only one other person in sight, and they were walking away from Verus. That was a relief. Verus had no desire to deal with any spoiled nobles. It was infuriating that they had so much when he had so little. He hadn’t even managed to get a proper attunement, when all of them had. Their descent from powerful cultivators had given them even that.

Stepping outside, Verus began walking down one of the paved paths that cut through the nearby gardens. The sun had already set almost completely, so that only an orange glow was visible behind the buildings on the horizon. The temple was thus washed in shadows and darkness, giving everything an eerie cast. The bushes and buildings all looked slightly warped and unreal, and the trees swayed creepily in the night breeze. Even the local ki seemed darker and more menacing than normal. Verus knew the temple was warded and guarded by elders, but he couldn’t help but think that malicious spirits could be lurking just out of sight.

Despite that, the peace and quiet did help him think and the chill of the night breeze was invigorating. Thus, Verus stared at the distant glow of the setting sun as he thought about his options. His problem was a lack of resources and attunements, but what did he have? At first, nothing came to mind, but then Verus realized he did have one thing. As he’d recently been reminded, he had a good friend.

Perhaps he should go talk to Warin and take him up on his offer of help. He hadn’t thought he’d do it so soon, but his friend was probably in his room now. It couldn’t hurt. Nodding to himself, Verus left the darkness behind and walked back into the dormitory to knock on his friend’s door. A few moments later, the door swung open to reveal Warin’s chubby from and smiling face.

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“Verus! Come in,” Warin announced as he stepped out of the way and beckoned his friend inside.

Feeling awkward in the face of his friend’s unquestioning hospitality after avoiding him for days, Verus stepped inside. As he hesitated, Warin shut the door and then turned back to him. “So, my brother, what do you need?”

Sighing, Verus decided to come clean with his friend. There was no point in hiding anything if he wanted Warin’s help. Really, he should never have kept his problems from his friends. It was stupid, but he’d been ashamed to talk about his lack of strong attunements and look like a failure.

“I have a serious problem, and I was wondering if you could help me,” he said before telling Warin all about the initiation ceremony and his own lack of attunements. He knew his friend would understand, but he felt guilty for hiding this in the first place.

There was a sympathetic and thoughtful look on Warin’s face as Verus finished his explanation. “That’s terrible. I didn’t realize the initiation didn’t test for every attunement. Really, that’s just lazy on the elders’ part.”

“I imagine they don’t see much need for it. From what I’ve read, rare attunements are almost always found in special bloodlines or tribes that focus on them. Those families already know what to look for, so even they don’t have to test for everything.”

Warin huffed in disagreement. “Or maybe temple wards like us never get tested so that our special abilities don’t get found and developed, and thus the powerful families can keep those special attunements for themselves and face less competition.”

“Maybe, although I think the elders just can’t be bothered. It’s not like they’re stopping me from doing the testing myself,” Verus replied. He didn’t like bad-mouthing the elders, even in private.

“Doing all that work yourself sounds like it's practically impossible. I bet there are quite a few young masters and their families - including some elders - that are quite happy that talented young cultivators like you are disadvantaged this way. It means their family members can compete easier and earn more prestige and resources.”

“Perhaps you’re right, but blaming others won’t help me, and finding a rare attunement isn’t completely impossible. I just need shards and time,” Verus remarked with renewed determination. It was nice that Warin was being supportive and assuming he had a rare attunement to find. That was far from guaranteed.

“Well, I could lend you a shard. I’ve still got one”

“Absolutely not, brother,” Verus immediately responded. “I’m not going to hold back your cultivation. You’ve already helped me enough.”

Warin gave him a reluctant nod. “Then, it seems like you need to win a duel and get your hands on some shards.”

“I don’t even know where to start with that. Is there anyone I could even beat? They all look so strong.”

“Uh, I was just thinking you could pick on someone who looked weak, but I suppose that won’t really work. It sounds like losing a gamble could really set you back.”

“Then, how am I supposed to find someone I can beat?”

Warin gave him a thoughtful look. “Well, I’ve heard you’re acquainted with Fang, the battle maniac. You could ask him.”

Caught off guard, Verus blinked in surprise. “What? How do you know about that?”

“People in the cafeteria talk about almost everything,” Warin explained as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Good food and drink fill people with cheer even as it fills their stomachs, which loosens tongues and makes people seek conversation. Then, there I am, looking soft and harmless with a smile on my face.”

It was all too easy for Verus to picture that. Warin had always been far more social then him. “Er, I barely know Fang. Do you think he would really tell me anything?”

“It couldn’t hurt to ask.”

“I suppose not,” Verus admitted. It wasn’t the sort of thing he would normally do, but these weren’t normal circumstances. “I could approach him tomorrow, right after class. Will he really know who I should fight though?”

“I’ve heard he watches almost all the fights, and he’s already won two duels. I can’t think of anyone better to ask.”

Huh, Verus hadn’t known that, although it didn’t surprise him.

“Ah, then that’s what I’ll do,” Verus remarked. “Although, I’m not sure what I’ll do until the duel. Do you want to do some training tomorrow?”

“Of course, I could use your input. You’ve always been a genius when it came to ki techniques,” Warin replied. “Your help is the only reason I’m here.”

“I don’t know about being a genius, although I like to think I have some talent,” Verus replied humbly.

Warin gave him another look. “None of the other disciples back home could hold a candle to your ability. You learned to enhance your strikes with ki in a single day. I took a week, and that was with your help. Some people took a month or never learned it the entire time they were there.”

“It just comes to me sometimes,” Verus explained with a shrug. “I get a strange feeling, like I’m watching myself, and I just know how ki should move through the body. It’s obvious and not something I’ve earned through effort, so I don’t feel that taking pride in such a thing would be appropriate.”

“That seems like genius to me. Just believe in yourself. Regardless of this attunement situation, you're still way more talented than everyone else in the outer sect. I know it.”

“Whatever. Let’s get to work. We have some training to do,” Verus replied as he blushed in embarrassment from the praise. “First off, I’ll master the Vanishing Feather Step footwork and teach it to you. Then, there is one other trick I’d like to try.”

Maybe Warin was right. As he circulated the ki within his body, Verus could already feel himself falling into one of his bouts of enhanced awareness. It would be nice to have a plan and some real techniques he could develop properly instead of relying on the random bouts of inspiration channeling required. If he mastered the basic ki techniques, there was no reason he couldn’t defeat disciples with proper cultivation techniques and earn shards until he got his own attunements. He still had the basic cultivation method he’d used to get to the Foundation Realm. It wouldn’t allow him to break through to the Tempered Realm, but it would allow him to absorb ki and grow stronger in the short term.