13 The Next Step (Revised)

Elizabeth left her house in such a good mood because of her breakthrough, that for the whole journey to Atid's Dojo, she sprinted with a smile. The image of her ephemeral beauty was imprinted on anyone fortunate enough to see her. There, speeding through the city streets clad in black athletic wear, out on a vagrant journey to reap and sow… experience.

She made her way through the same path she took the day prior and arrived right on time for the dojo to open for the public.

Upon entering the dojo, Atid and Jane were already moving about, conducting their responsibilities as instructors to the dojo's non-Practitioner patrons, while off to the side, Sun stood before a heavy sandbag, alone. He seemed to be in his own little world, focused solely on himself and his training, with no one capable of disrupting him.

"Hmm..." Elizabeth watched with a keen eye as she pondered carefully. 'It makes sense for Jane and Atid to be so lax with their cultivation. As Peak Phase Martial Soldiers and Martial Kings respectively, I can understand their restraint to cultivate the Martial Path with the absence of cultivation resources and instead spend their time teaching others. But, Sun…' She watched him execute objectively flawless strikes against the sandbag.

She narrowed her eyes as the idea to appraise his Status came to her, but after a moment of consideration, smirked and shook her head. 'His dedication to the grind is admirable,' her thought concluded with the decision to refrain from wasting any more time on Sun and begin her own training.

Now a Level 1, Beginner Phase Mortal Stage Practitioner, Elizabeth immediately felt the difference between not having and having a cultivation base; even, with one as meager as hers. None of her Stats changed, nor did their effects. However, her control over Inner Strength compared to yesterday was a night and day difference.

She couldn't do anything immediately, but after just a couple hours of training…

[Innate Skills:

Name: Inner Strength Conversion

Grade: F

Current Effect: Depends on the activities and intensity of training, the user's Intelligence Stat, and Inner Strength Energy expended.

*New) Max Inner Strength Conversation Rate: 1 → 2 (units per minute)]

The moment she digested the prompt, Elizabeth stopped. For minutes, anyone unfortunate enough to be looking in her direction would be able to see her twisted, sickly-sweet grin; one that wouldn't look out of place in a psychotic maniac. The entire time, she fantasized about how much faster she could make progress.

Eventually, she snapped out of her day dream and got back to work only for reality to, once more, come crashing down on her with the weight of a mountain. Re-engaging her Inner Strength Conversion Skill to its new max, apparently didn't only come with the cost of increasing both the input and output of Stats…

"Fuck… This sucks," Elizabeth muttered as she started panting and sweating less than a half-hour after she resumed her training.

When she finally ran out of energy and sat down to meditate and recuperate, she cringed at what she felt when she "looked within."

Having digested both the Temporal Meditation Cultivation Method and the "Introduction To The Path Of Medicine," the basis for her Acupoint Skill, she could innately look into her body's condition while meditating to ensure no anomalies arose during cultivation.

Until now, she had failed to sustain any hidden injuries when she trained or meditated. However, with her Inner Conversion Skill improving and her insistence on pushing herself as hard as possible…

'I should have known this would've happened,' Elizabeth sighed as she looked at her rapidly repairing muscle fibers and bones. While she meditated, the Inner Strength she would have been accumulating in her energy center was being immediately consumed to make the repairs. She would remain like this until she was back to perfect health, for she could not run the risk of letting small hidden injuries build up if she could help it.

'Obviously, pushing myself to this new limit would have adverse effects, if only until my body gets used to it,' Elizabeth thought before she rid herself of bothersome thoughts and focused on recovering.

Many minutes later, she stood up and paused. With her body and energy restored, she looked at the time and assessed, 'There's barely a difference in the rate of overall progression. The time I would have spent training at a lower Inner Strength consumption rate, was spent recovering...'

P had already explained that she should not expect to behave exactly as a video game character would, repeatedly… But her habit of forgetting the fact was proving to be more troublesome than expected.

'Oh well,' Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders as she got back to work. "Eventually, I'll make up the difference," she muttered her vow.

She returned to the heavy bag and lowered the rate of energy consumption back to one unit per minute, focusing on her Muay Thai. 'It was the most efficient use of my time,' she presumed, expecting to have an easier time adapting to higher levels of proficiency with Inner Strength Conversion the greater her Cultivation Base became.

'It's not like I'm in a rush,' Elizabeth thought sincerely.

Elsewhere in the cosmos, P snorted mischievously as she accurately deduced Elizabeth's train of thought by watching her actions.

...

"Oi, Elizabeth. Stop for a second," Jane said. When she got Elizabeth's attention, she smirked and said, "You know… If I hadn't seen with my own eyes how you literally learned Muay Thai yesterday and had just now to get a first impression, I'd think you'd have come from a program with weeks worth of experience."

"Thanks?" Elizabeth said as her mind wandered over to check on her Muay Thai Skill. Internally, she was confused as it was still incredibly low-leveled; with only a couple dozen cumulative experience points.

"I think you're ready to take things to the next step," Jane smirked... menacingly.

"And what would that be?" Elizabeth asked, shrinking back on herself as she felt a chill run down her spine.

"I think I should start you on..." She let the last word drag to build tension which Elizabeth perceived as pressure, "sparring." With her sentence complete, Jane adopted a teeth-bearing grin that left Elizabeth with internal paralysis.

Externally, though…

"Great," Elizabeth weakly smiled as she fought her natural preservation instincts, which told her to run away posthaste.

"Good," Jane said as she produced an armband and headband. "Now, usually we—" the dojo, "—would wait until your initiation match to give you these. However, even Atid is impressed by your proficiency as a beginner. So," Jane produced her own armband and headband and began "equipping" it, as Elizabeth might say, "Let's skip the formalities and jump right into it."

"Sure..." Elizabeth said, copying Jane to properly set her new accessories.

When the two were done, they stepped into a sparring ring and looked like professionals as they both adopted the Traditional Thai Stance.

'Welp, with my luck I should have anticipated that I would be getting my ass beaten sooner rather than later,' Elizabeth groaned internally. With no prior experience and her foreknowledge of just how badly Jane outclassed her, she assumed the worst.

However, even as she kept her stance and waited with dreadful anticipation for what was to come, Jane never moved from her spot.

"Oi, what are you waiting for? This is your first spar, so naturally I'm going to be defending first to get you used to fighting an active opponent instead of against a static heavy bag. Perhaps if you impress me, I might just retaliate at your level to get you used to defending in a real fight," Jane said.

Immediately following her comforting words, Elizabeth felt all the tension in her body relax.

'Oh, thank god,' she simply thought before she charged at Jane.