One of the most basic techniques one needs to learn is to control their strength and impose a limit on one’s self. There’s nothing we can do about our reaction times, but the speed with which we move and the strength we exert is something we very much can control. Even commoners can use it for the purpose of teaching…

  — Excerpt from Basics of Teaching

  Day 375, 2:00 PM

  I spent two and a half moons living in Glory City like a normal citizen, practicing my crafts, meditating and sculpting my realm. My somewhat improved physique and obscene number of skills helped improve my learning speed and the rate at which I sculpted my realm by a large margin.

  Oddly enough, despite my large array of guild memberships, I had found the most profitable profession by far. One profitable enough to allow me to rent a special meditation chamber, which doubled the rate at which I sculpted my realm.

  By a strange twist of fate, I had come across a mission nobody wanted anything to do with in the adventurers’ guild - helping a peak fourth realm mageknight resolve his heart demon. The man was desperate enough, his heart demon unresolvable, that he had posted a mission in the guild.

  “Young Master Helmsworth,” I greeted my patient as I entered his family’s training yard for our third session. “Have you considered what we talked about the last time?”

  “Yes, thank you, the demon is still there, but I see a path forward now. Shall we?” Young Master Helmsworth drew his sword, his hand trembling with excitement.

  I picked up a common training sword from the weapons rack and gave it a test swing. “Please.”

  He was upon me before a mortal could blink, blade slashing at my throat. With a minimal movement of the sword, I deflected the blow. Had it been a real fight, he would’ve been dead, my knuckles buried in his shattered temple, but we weren’t fighting. We were trying to overcome the young master’s obsession.

  Blades spoke in our stead, clashing over a hundred times before the young man nearly my own age relented and stepped back.

  “Advice?”

  “We shall start with the footwork, knights and mageknights rely on their improved bodies instead of perfecting the basics, so while you have improved, Young Master Helmswort, you still have a lot of room to grow. For instance…”

  Hours of instruction passed. The fourth realm genius’s even higher realm parents had prepared yet another sack of twenty third realm crystals, delivered by a bowing third realm butler.

  “Lord Helmsworth wishes to know how skilled you are with the spear, Lord Dandelion.” The man insisted on formal address, despite us being at the same realm.

  The Helmsworths had investigated me when I came to discuss their son’s problem, and apparently the list of recognitions from just about every guild increased my status considerably in one of the Glory City’s wealthiest families.

  “While I wouldn’t dare call myself a master, I dare say I’m no less skilled with the spear than I am with the sword or staff.”

  Buttler Watcher nodded, not one bit surprised. “Lord Helmsworth is willing to grace you with a lesson tomorrow, two hours after dawn.”

  Naturally, he couldn’t say the high realm mageknight wanted some pointers, but we both knew he wasn’t offering to teach me anything, nor was he offering at all. An invitation from Lord Helmsworth was just a bit easier to avoid than the direct invitation from the Citylord, the seventeenth prince.

  “I thank the magnanimous Lord Helmsworth for the opportunity. I shall be here an hour after dawn.”

  Butler Watcher nodded at my proper manners and the proper amount of ass-kissing. Lord Helmsworth was an imperial minister, at least at the seventh realm - I didn’t dare investigate the man, not just because of the high cost of such information, even if it were available, but because of the assassination attempts certain to follow.

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  I took a slow walk through the noble’s part of the town, heading for the bullet station and the scribes’ guild.

  “Good evening, Master Dandelion, the usual?”

  “Please, Gem.” I lowered a third realm crystal onto her desk with a soft click of wealth beyond normal human’s imagination.

  “You know, I always knew masters earn a lot, but I think your lifestyle is extravagant even by their standards. I mean, we even have several grandmasters here, and I don’t see them renting the meditation chamber every night. I’m not even sure such long exposure is good for you.”

  “They are perfectly safe, thank you for your concern, Gem.” I went to my self-imposed solitary cell, closed the door behind me and activated the seals before entering my realm.

  The volcanic mountain was progressing with each passing evening. I had expanded it up until the peak of the third realm, but the sculpting would take at least another year or two even with near-constant use of the meditation chamber.

  I descended the mountain, past the burbling creek shaped into “surge” seal, next to the metal statue showing “sharpness”, and between two trees whose branches repeated “growth”, “might”, and “stab” in regular intervals, the combined runic seals making one of my techniques where wood grown from the local flora pierced from the ground and into an unsuspecting enemy.

  A distant thunder rumbled, nagging at me because I still hadn’t figured out anything for the purely sonic form of mana. I looked up at the passing clouds and the drizzle falling a mile away.

  “If you tell me how to make a seal for you, I’ll make one, I promise."

  Thunder grumbled in response, but offered no constructive suggestions.

  Finally, I reached the lava flow. I had set aside that night for five runic formations, which would hopefully let me finally conjure lava by super-heating regular rocks. The unexpected meeting the next morning meant I might not complete my work, but such was life.

  Hours passed, and morning approached sooner than I would’ve liked it, my self-invented alarm clock snapping me out of meditation.

  “Done already, Master Dandelion?”

  “Not really, but I had to stop. I’ll go freshen up, then I have a lesson one can’t afford to miss.”

  I went to the adventurers’ guild, where I took a shower I didn’t need and washed my clean hair because I had a sneaking suspicion my perceptive host would know whether I had shown him disrespect by not cleaning myself before presenting myself before him.

  An hour after sunrise, I was before the ??Helmsworth estate, respectfully knocking. Butler Watcher let me in a moment later, and I followed him down an unknown path through their massive courtyard.

  “This isn’t the path to the training yard.”

  “Lord Helmsworth will grace you with the honor of seeing his private gymnasium.” That’s what he said, but what he meant was away from any prying eyes that might spread rumors out to harm his prestige.

  I hate politics. I always did, even when I was a king, but they were countless times worse for pawns.

  Butler Watcher brought me into the gymnasium, which was a square room two hundred and fifty yards across, so heavily reinforced by runic seals it blazed with mana.

  “Make yourself comfortable. Lord Helmsworth will see you in an hour.”

  The butler left, and I was alone in an unknown, insanely expensive training hall. A part of me wanted to check out the seals, because they were expertly done, but I couldn’t see any out in the open, and determining what they were through layers of stone and wood was impractical and needlessly difficult.

  Just standing in place felt dumb, as did sitting down and working on my realm in the middle of someone else’s home when that someone else was certainly watching me in a power play. With no good choices and scant few passable ones, I approached the weapons rack holding various training weapons.

  I took the spear and appraised it as the work of a master craftsman or someone close to it. I made a few practice stabs and slashes, and it was indeed a fine weapon. It was no Batsy, but certainly passable.

  I placed the spear back in its place, then approached the armor stands. They came in five sizes, all enchanted cloth, and while the artisan had concealed the enchantments, I could make out enough to recognise shock absorption, self-repair, self-cleaning, and tear resistance.

  Rather expensive for training, but it wasn’t my money. And I can’t say I wouldn’t invest in something similar if my kids were taking their first steps into the martial world inside that training room.

  I didn’t hear the door open, but I sensed the gaze locked onto me the moment it appeared.

  Is this a test? If so, what are they testing and what is the desired result? A regular third realm mageknight sensing someone so many realms beyond them should’ve been impossible, but the one watching could’ve intentionally made it easier for me. After all, even enhanced by attributes, my senses certainly weren’t beyond the sixth realm mageknight’s.

  I returned the armor I was examining and turned around, seemingly at random, coming face to face with the more perfect version of Young Master Helmsworth.

  His cold brown eyes pierced every part of my being without actually shifting. They either moved so fast, or Lord Helmsworth had a perception-related skill.

  “You’re not surprised I’m here,” he said, not one whit surprised I wasn’t surprised.

  So, it was a test. The only question was whether I had passed.