Tenets of Eden – A Romance Urban Fantasy Cultivation Story

As usual, Matt handed my ass to me in a direct spar. I didn’t use my mirror Qi, though, which could have probably turned the tide.

He kept a wooden sword in his inventory for occasions like this. Well, it was made from a special, super durable and Qi resistant wood, of course, but it still ensured that I ended up with bruises instead of cuts.

Of course, I hit Matt a fair share of times, too. Repairing my weapon was exhausting, but it also made me feel more connected to it. I knew its intricacies better, its balance. It adjusted to fit me, specifically, more and more.

I could feel it resonate with my Qi as I swung, the weapon whizzing through the air and hitting Matt hard, multiple times.

He would step forward and do a downward slash, I’d parry and let his sword slide down the length of the spear. He transferred to a sideway swing, using his leverage to try and push the tip of my weapon aside, but I stepped forward, into close range, and brought the butt of the spear down onto his face. The tip dug into the earth, not moving under his strike.

There was half a second where he was disoriented, and I slammed the butt of my spear into his solar plexus, making his gasp for air, then knocked the sword out his hand by hitting his wrist, hard.

The next exchange, I thrust my spear, but he batted it down and to his right, then kicked it, throwing me more off balance. A quick strike from his left, and I would’ve lost my arm in a real fight.

On and on we went, exchanges often lasting only a handful of moves. Then, as we both got into the rhythm, they got longer. A dozen moves, first, then two dozen. A series of steps, parries, strikes, cuts and thrusts. I felt my stance shift sometimes, my intermediate basic spear techniques showing their worth as the ability settled in.

I had learned it, but the fight was slowly engraving it into me. The feeling was strange, knowing I was visibly improving with every move I made felt almost unnatural, but at the same time, not like I was doing anything I didn’t already know to do.

Matt even paused between spars and stared at me. “What the hell is up with you, Fio?” he asked. “Did you eat enlightenment with a spoon or something?”

I told him about mirror mind, and he grimaced. “Damn you, spearwoman!” he lamented. “Now my greatest advantage is gone! Whose ass am I gonna kick in spars?! Liam’s?”

The young rogue, despite being far away, immediately looked over, and slowly rose from his log. Then he vanished, and reappeared from Matt’s shadow, holding a knife to the swordsman’s throat.

“I don’t think you will,” I heard his voice carried to my ears by the wind, his tone mischievous and teasing.

“Try me,” Matt said, grinning, and a moment later, Liam had joined the sparring.

Despite his obsessive weapon maintenance, he also had a pair of sparring daggers, which he used to thoroughly teach Matt a lesson with my help. Miraculously, the swordsman was still able to keep up with the both of us combined. I really, really didn’t want to have to face him in a one-on-one.

Matt had learned swordsmanship back on the other side from a young age, and it had been running in his family for a while. Fighting humans was his specialty, and once again he demonstrated that whenever he sparred with me, he held back.

Only when Liam joined me did that manic look return to his eyes as he fully focused. It felt like fighting someone thrice his size who also just so happened to be an olympic level gymnast, flexing unreasonably and diving between attacks. Only to smack you right across the face with a slash you could hardly see.

By the end of it, all three of us laid on the floor, spent. My body was covered in bruises, and so were those of Matt and Liam. Despite it, Emilia walked over, and lightly kicked our resident martial artist. “You know you were supposed to take first watch, right?” she snarked, and I heard him groan loudly.

“Alright kids, stop messing about,” Marie chided, mirth in her face. “I can take first. Hurry off to bed.”

All three of us groaned, and only Matt managed to squeak out a grumbling answer. I joined Ann in my tent, and cuddled up to her, despite the fact that the rough ground didn’t exactly feel great on all my beat up muscles.

She wrapped her arms around me with a smile on her face. I must have been drenched in sweat, but she didn’t seem to care in the slightest as she kissed my forehead. “You did well,” she assured me.

I smiled and nodded.

“But it was probably a little bit of a stupid idea to spend so long sparring,” she reminded me.

I frowned and nodded.

She smiled and kissed my forehead again. “Guess I’ll just have to practice extra hard to make sure you don’t leave me in the dust.”

I chuckled a little and nodded. “I guess you’ll have to.”

We spent a few more minutes in comfortable silence before my exhaustion and Ann’s warmth dragged me off into the sweet embrace of sleep.

- - -

The day after was miserable.

Not that it was unexpected. Marching, by itself, was already enough to wear me out sometimes, though the new levels from the gateway class definitely helped with that, but sparring on top of that? Not only were all my muscles sore, I was also covered in bruises.

Reya offered to heal them, but I declined. Pain was also a valuable teacher. And having my muscles rebuild themselves was much better for development. Divinity “fixed” your body, after all. It didn’t necessarily develop it.

There were some ways to get around that for agents of other divines. Ru and Argus’ clerics, for example, could pick up some skills related to it. Ru’s would simulate battles, dealing damage to your muscles, and then prompting them to knit back together. It was why he had so many paladins.

Argus gave some skills that allowed your body to grow stronger by eating plants or absorbing sunlight. It would also increase your affinity for nature powers, so it was especially suited for druids. Apparently, it was quite a popular blessing for farmers to pick up.

But I was with neither of them. Our clerics were with Lurelia, whose healing powers were far stronger than those of the other, but in exchange, they weren’t optimal for growing. I wanted the movements of the spars to ingrain themselves into my body, so the wounds needed to heal by themselves.

Even if it made marching much tougher.

At least iron will made things easier to bear. It didn’t exactly lessen the pain, but it did make pushing it aside much more doable. I reviewed the spars in my head while I maintained [Aura Suppression]. The ability was slowly becoming more familiar. Soon I probably wouldn’t need to flick that mental switch anymore.

Bit by bit, the day ticked by. This time, when the metal-eating lirers attacked, I smacked them with the butt of my spear instead. They were durable, with excessive amounts of vitality, but I could use my Qi to create a makeshift spike on the back of my spear, which worked quite well for stabbing the critters.

As for the sylters, we were able to deal with them when we saw them coming. By now, Emilia, Liam, and Marie were taking turns applying some form of surveillance. Liam could feel shadows moving if he was properly focused, apparently. He’d had to adjust because of the grass giving a huge influx of information when even a slight gust blew.

Now, though, we knew ahead when the snakes were coming, and while they were fast and vicious, they were far less durable than the lirers, easily sliced apart.

I was worried though. We hadn’t yet encountered a kamaitachi, which were supposed to be more dominant than the other monsters here, as well as being far more deadly.

Their wind magic made them incredibly fast, and the blades that they had as part of their bodies were horrendously sharp apparently. Yet, despite them supposedly being native to this area, we made it to the waypoint without facing any of them.

The obelisk stood tall in the landscape. A monolith, hewn from a smooth black glassy material. It looked like obsidian or onyx, but everyone knew it was not. When you touched them, they were faintly warm and would hum in response to residual Qi, and if you properly charged them with energy, they would point you in the direction of the nearest settlement.

Just out of a sense of routine, I led a little of my metal Qi into this one while the others restocked on water. Sometimes we’d make camp around these, their formations warding the monsters away via use of divinity.

When I charged the obelisk, there was a faint moment of resonance, before I felt the information drizzle into my mind. There weren’t many locations stored in it, just a few landmarks. A cave for shelter, which may or may not be overrun by monsters by now, an outpost that had long since been abandoned, and the monastery we were heading towards as a very distant goal.

“Nothing interesting,” I told my party, grabbing a couple full waterskins from Ann and quickly depositing them into my inventory.

Marie nodded. “Alright. Then we continue on towards the original goal.”

With that we marched on, the hours drifting by with the monotonous routine. The shrubbery would change occasionally, thorny bushes becoming more frequent. The grass itself was already hardy and sharp, some of it felt like it was on the verge of awakening into plant monsters, but the shrubs were even more vicious.

The thorns were coated in a toxin that induced sleep, as we found out the hard way when Eric got a scrape from one of them. Emilia easily slung his unconscious body over her shoulders, carrying the man, once we’d removed the barbed thorn, of course. Why did it need to have three separate barbs at the end of an already heavily curved thorn? That was for the shrub to decide.

Of course, the plant remained silent, though maybe that was because of how quickly we moved on.

More days of marching passed. The air grew colder, almost icy, and the ground became rockier. Despite the fact that there was hardly any soft soil left, the grass only seemed hardier. It did feel like the energy in the air was thicker here, weighing down against my Qi.

Having to shield myself while keeping my mirror Qi contained was an excellent way of practicing aura suppression, at least. Though it sure felt like crap. The energy wasn’t as dense as in Orvan’s room, where it had felt charged and ready to lash out any moment.

Despite the fact that it was thinner here though, it felt heavier. Different. In the way that there was less purpose to it, and more a general will to consume. Orvan probably kept his study charged for him to top up on mana. Here, the energy in the air itself seemed willing to consume.

Rather than being a dozen electric sparks, it felt like one large whale pressing down on me, making each step heavier.

Still we kept walking, and another day passed. I’d hoped to be able to continue cultivating by then, but apparently, that life just wasn’t meant for me, because the increasing pressure made aura suppression harder to keep active.

It locked me in a rather frustrating cycle of getting better with the ability, only to have it become harder to keep active, forcing me to improve my mastery again.

At least imprint and voyage as paths were still profiting. Voyage seemed to revel in the fact that I was out and seeing new places, fighting new monsters, while imprint seemed to grow from the fact that I refused to yield against the pressure. Maybe this was going against the natural will of the world or something like that.

Regardless, another day passed by. We did finally encounter a few awakened plants. Shrubs which lashed out at us with vines, but soon retreated once Ann singed a couple of their probing appendages with a healthy dose of fire.

My sparring with Matt had continued over the last few days, and I felt my spear technique improving more and more. Activating mirror mind against the nest had apparently given me a whole lot of inspiration that hadn’t quite settled yet. I could feel specks of another enlightenment slowly coalescing together in my mind as we fought, but it was still distant.

Unlike what I had figured out back at castle Arhan, where I’d first imagined all the other “me”s. That bit of enlightenment was what imprint was based on. This, instead, was much more focused on the spear rather than my mirror powers.

I knew Matt had gone through enlightenment about the sword multiple times now. I’d had two before about my weapon, when I finally properly understood what it meant to have a bound one, and when it clicked how to apply my Qi to it properly. Now, I was beginning to feel a third one forming.