10 Pair Of Suns (Revised)

Standing before Atid's Dojo, Elizabeth's latent hesitation reared its ugly head. She called into question whether or not she should really go into yet another foreign place, for being resolute right before one's greatest obstacle naturally came into question just before the critical moment.

Elizabeth had only started on the path of cultivation not three days prior. Despite already being capable of supernatural feats and possessing physics' defying artifacts, she far from attained a Practitioner's unbreakable will.

'Come on… Just fucking do it…' Elizabeth scowled as her body refused to follow her will. Subconsciously, she was in a deadlock fighting countless fears and a veritable lifetime of dread.

As she internally debated herself, trying to let logic and reason overturn her hidden feelings of fear, she had absolutely no clue that from the inside of the Dojo, people were already talking about her.

"Jane…" A middle aged man with wispy white hair called as he downed a shot of whiskey, "isn't that the girl you raved on and on about, yesterday?" His eyes never moved from observing Elizabeth's position through the one-way tinted glass doors.

Jane, sitting across from the middle aged man, smirked. She had her chin resting on her hand as she stared at Elizabeth alongside the man.

Jane said, "It should be her, unless Sophie and the others decided to speed up the relocation process from England." With her expression growing amused, Jane continued, "Though... While I fully expected her to come down here eventually, it has only been a day. I mean, we're not even open yet."

"Well, lets not keep her waiting," The man smiled, a flicker of white in his eyes shining as he flared his Inner Strength. "Such an eager seedling must be rewarded for her 'overwhelming' enthusiasm," The middle aged man added as he stood up from his drinking table and walked over to the Dojo's entrance.

He practically blew the doors open, startling Elizabeth quite badly, while projecting a most powerful voice, as he said, "Young lady! Welcome to my Dojo!"

Without even needing to rely on her Status Function, Elizabeth could instantly tell that the man was a Practitioner of Inner Strength; a strong one too. If his overpowering voice wasn't the most obvious clue, then the intimidating physique he proudly displayed was proof enough.

Looking at the man's wrinkle-ridden face, one might assume he was seventy years old — perhaps even eighty —, but his body would put pro bodybuilders in their prime to shame. Elizabeth judged as much as the man wore the ever minimalist Muay Thai uniform of boxing shorts and… Just boxing shorts; Thai boxing shorts, to be specific.

Not a moment too soon, Elizabeth winced slightly. With her meager cultivation, she could swear that looking at Atid left her psyche frozen with a prickly sensation of sharpness. Disregarding the man's impossibly powerful appearance, his voice had effectively stopped Elizabeth in her tracks, forcing her to take a second to recuperate.

When she could properly think again, when her motor functions returned and she found feeling return to the muscles in her mouth, Elizabeth asked, "Sir… I can train here?"

"Train?" The man's smile deepened. Even as the volume of his voice decreased, the power within it instilled a terrible feeling of pressure.

"Yes?" Elizabeth said, somewhat unsure if she still even wanted to learn in the same place as the monster before her.

"Huh? Is that a...Yes? Or, Yes!?" Elizabeth swore she felt the very ground tremble at the man's 'question.'

"This is my Muay Thai Dojo," The man narrowed his eyes. "I don't accept half-assed responses," The man, now identified as Atid, said solemnly.

"R-right! I mean, yes!" Elizabeth stumbled as she succumbed to the pressure. She half felt she was being interrogated into giving that specific response.

"Good," In an instant the pressure was gone and standing before Atid no longer felt like walking the line between life and death. "Jane has already told me about you, but we still don't know what level of proficiency you should be placed in. Our first order of business, then, is for me to obviously test your skill before we do anything too extreme." As Atid finished, he gestured for Elizabeth to follow him inside the Dojo.

As he walked with Elizabeth into a sparring area, he almost tripped when Elizabeth said, "Um… I have no training."

Her unexpected confession came to topple even the currently sitting and smiling Jane as it was unbelievable to find a practitioner of Inner Strength with no formal training at all; this despite Elizabeth admitting to it beforehand. To Jane, Elizabeth's prior claim to never have trained were just the words of someone being nervous and humble in the face of an obviously stronger person — Jane herself.

It would naturally come as a surprise to Practitioners of the planet Earth, as Mages, like the one Elizabeth cultivated to be, were all but regarded as myths. Only the Martial Path of Inner Strength Cultivation existed on Earth. But in the Shadow Realm and across countless regions of the whole of the cosmos, there existed sects and factions with Mage practices and heritage.

Elizabeth, cultivating with Temporal Meditation, had only just started her on the path of following the mantras of a Mage, and while it was true that both Mages and Martial Practitioners cultivated Inner Strength, that was about the only similarity to two shared along the Stages of the Mortal Realm.

In the near future, Elizabeth would be using her Inner Strength to form Magic Energy, as opposed to the Martial Qi as a Practitioner. These types of energies, though equal in potency, were cultivated differently and shared different risks and benefits inherent to their Practitioners.

"No training… at all?" Atid asked.

When Elizabeth met his response with a nod, he narrowed his eyes at her and probed her cultivation.

"Jane," Whilst keeping his eyes on Elizabeth, he asked, "Didn't you mention that she had energy levels similar to that of a Naturally Awakened?"

"Right," Jane nodded and flared her own Inner Strength to probe Elizabeth as she said, "Just yesterday—" she froze. A look of incredulity emerged on her as she continued, "Her Inner Strength capacity was slightly larger than half that of the average Beginner Phase Mortal Practitioner..."

"Really?" Atid finally broke his stare to look seriously at Jane.

"Yeah, I'm positive her energy has almost quadrupled since I last saw her," Jane's eyes widened as verbalizing her thoughts hammered in how incredible the implications were.

If Elizabeth could quadruple her Inner Strength reserves in a matter of hours, by herself, without guidance nor a martial art to cultivate… What would her progression look like with someone like Jane or Atid watching over her?

"Interesting," Atid smiled as his mind ran through dozens of possible explanations for why Elizabeth's case was as odd as it appeared.

'Perhaps she had her Natural Awakening rather recently,' Atid thought, defining "recently" as at most three days ago. 'Maybe she's lying about not knowing a martial art. It wouldn't be the first time a person without talent was cast aside from their Faction,' Atid sighed internally. 'Whatever the case, speculating with just information on her energy levels will just waste more time.'

"Anyways, before we get properly situated, follow me to take care of the business side of things," Atid said as he led Elizabeth through the dojo in the center of the bottom floor and into one of the offices to the side.

Naturally, Elizabeth understood the moment she was handed the papers to be signed. To enlist oneself in any dojo with ties to the Martial World, she expected she'd have to sign away said dojo's responsibility for her well being. Unlike a 'normal' dojo for non-Practitioners that required such paperwork only for joining a competition, joining a dojo — Faction — of the Martial World was akin to branding oneself to the underworld of Practitioners in and of itself.

Elizabeth only had one concern. "Say… No where along this document are there any terms for payment. What gives?"

"The only price you have to pay for joining and learning under me is… your loyalty," Atid bluntly said.

"Eh," Elizabeth thought for a second before shrugging her shoulders, "fair enough." She didn't have to consider much given her general distaste for participating in human interaction. To her, it seemed like a great deal to not only learn a legitimate martial art fit for Practitioners, but also become affiliated with Atid especially after she appraised his Status.

[Status

Name: Atid

Level: 25

Rank: Martial King

Description: This man stands near the apex of possible cultivation in an environment as inert as the Virgo Realm.]

'Holy… He's at the penultimate step of the Mortal Realm? That's fucking insane,' Elizabeth thought as she wholeheartedly agreed with her Status Function's assessment.

Disregarding the fact that she just discovered her universe was called the Virgo Realm, she knew that not all Realms were created equal. Across the whole of reality, there were many places of incomprehensible sizes and while some as small as a room could hold enough spiritual energy for even supreme deities to settle and cultivate, some the size of an entire universe — like the entirety of the Virgo Realm, apparently — would be totally devoid of simple spiritual air.

Spiritually inert places had a theoretical upper limit for cultivation; the final, Saint Stage, step of Mortal Realm cultivation. So, for Atid to not only reach the King Stage, but cultivate it to its peak Phase… As a Martial Practitioner no less...

"Naturally," Atid began to speak, to remind Elizabeth, "I hope you understand the risks and expectations I and the rest of the dojo will have from you going forward. To make it anywhere as a Practitioner of my Faction, of any Faction really," Atid paused to sigh, "you're going to have to compete for resources, fight, sometimes to the death, and delve into the politics that move the Martial World..."

Elizabeth didn't think twice about signing the paperwork and shaking hands with her new teacher. "Trust me," Elizabeth snorted, "Soon the Martial World will be the least of my worries."

Atid thought her phrasing was a bit weird. 'She must have meant that she won't have to worry about that so soon, seeing as it'll be months before she develops any Qi,' he thought, as he began to lead her out of the office and back to the dojo.

Just as Jane came into his sight, Atid lightly gave Elizabeth a pat on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, with your talent, you might even make waves when you represent our dojo in the International Wushi Tournament."

"I hope you mean the one after the next one," Jane stared at Atid questioningly.

"Perhaps," Atid chuckled. "Perhaps, she'll surprise us," he added.

Just then, a new face, er… back, entered from the entrance. From Elizabeth's perspective, she could tell that it was a young man, perhaps seventeen or eighteen years old like Jane, with black hair and he was currently exerting himself as he dragged in a ridiculous amount of heavy bags.

"Oi, Jane. You wanna maybe help me out?" The man sarcastically asked.

"Nah," Jane teased as a mischievous smile graced her face. "Wouldn't want to take away this training opportunity," she chuckled.

The man paused at her words. Evidently annoyed, he started, "laugh it up now, 'cause the moment I catch up to you..." His words died out as his jaw dropped. He was looking at Elizabeth and it was… it was...

'Love at first sight?' The man's subconscious seemed to ask itself, unsure of why or how he of all people could be so smitten.

'Hilarious!' Elizabeth, though not exactly experienced with this sort of thing, identified it immediately and struggled to contain her amusement as she felt her insides burn with repressed laughter.

"Y-you must be Sophie," the man dropped the dozen or so bags he'd been carrying, causing the floor to shake a bit from the force. He adopted a more formal posture and introduced himself, "Anyways, you can call me Sun and… Though, I may not be of much for you in the long run, I'm sure Jane and Atid can help you meet your goals."

"Sun?" Elizabeth glanced at the younger man and then Atid. Their names shared the same meaning; Sun's in English and Atid's in Thai.

When her questioning look was met with the older man subtly nodded with a sad look on his face, she turned to Sun and said, "Cool name, dude. I'm Elizabeth. Elizabeth… Ultimatia," somehow, she felt completely natural introducing herself with that unfathomably geeky name she had assigned the game character she was modeled after.

"Sun, my boy. You sure have impeccable timing," Atid said, gathering everyone's attention. At some point, he had taken the heavy bags Sun had been carrying and set them up around the gym. "Our newest member, here, as it turns out, doesn't have any experience with martial arts. Of all my student's your Muay Thai is undoubtedly the best, so why don't you teach her the basics?"

Sun did a double take. This Elizabeth wasn't Sophie? She became a member of the dojo with no martial arts training? No Muay Thai?

"Right..." Sun scrunched his eyebrows trying to make sense of everything as he led Elizabeth to one of the heavy bags to teach her the basics.