Cultivation Fever

"Big bro!"

"Ah! Oscar! Where were you last night?"

I placed my tray next to Davide"s and sat down.

"I"m sorry Dong, I was cultivating with master."

"In the vault?"

I nodded and got stuck into the food.

"Well that"s some good news. But there"s something else we need to talk about Oscar."

"Mhm?"

"What happened to your desk? When Davide came in, he found it ripped out of the wall and burnt to ashes."

"Oh," I put down my chopsticks, "Dong, I"m really sorry about that. My cultivation technique is weird, and I didn"t know that would happen."

Dong sighed and looked at me with a stern expression.

"Oscar, those desks are old, and they"re worth quite a sum. Just like these tables." he tapped the warped wooden table.

"I appreciate that you"re in an odd situation, but you can"t go destroying your room! I"m signing you up to evening volunteer work next week."

"What? Dong, I promise it won"t happen again…"

"I know that it won"t. But I have to punish you for what happened."

"Oh…" It wasn"t worth arguing about this. I didn"t want to anger Dong. "What is evening volunteer work?"

"You"ll have to help around the school in your evenings. Since you"re young, working in the kitchen is probably best."

It would be difficult to cultivate doing kitchen work, and I didn"t want to waste that time.

"Dong, are there any other jobs? Something like manual labour?"

"Let me think. There"s a pretty tough job scrubbing the training halls, are you sure you want to do that?"

"Yes, please." I could at least work on my stamina scrubbing floors.

"I"ll put you down for that then. Just don"t hate me later. Starting next week, the cleaner in charge will take you after training, so don"t run off at the end of the day."

"Okay, thank you Dong."

Next week… that only gave me three more evenings to cultivate.

"Dong, my cultivation technique is pretty dangerous. I"m worried that if I stay in my room, I"ll break more things…"

"I see. That is a problem. And you can"t cultivate in the vault?"

The image of master coughing up blood flashed into my head.

"I don"t think that"s a good idea."

"Hm. I don"t know if you can use the training halls, but there are seclusion chambers underneath college."

"Those would be perfect!"

"They would be but…" Dong glanced at Davide, "they"re also used by other scholars."

Looking to my side, Davide appeared sheepish. He sat hunched over, staring at his hands. Had he told Dong about what happened in the scholars meeting?

"That"s fine. I"m sure they"ll let me use one."

"If you say so. I"ll ask Tai to take care of you."

"No!" Dong startled at my exclamation, "That"s fine Dong. I"ll sort it out myself."

"Okay…"

Breakfast continued with a tense air. Davide was remarkably silent, and I excused myself as soon as I finished. Davide followed quickly and ran to catch up to me.

"Big bro! Wait up!"

"Davide, did you tell Dong what happened in the meeting."

He stayed silent for a second, then perked up with a meek voice.

"Yeah… he wanted to know how you were doing, and Tai was being mean to you!"

"Look, Davide, there"s no point in talking about it. We"re on the same side. They don"t want scholars to lose! There"s not gonna be any problems."

"Okay big bro."

"Forget all that, how"s your training been going?"

"I"m so tired!" he cried, showing an uncommon hint of anger, "Miss Freja made me swing a hammer all day! I wasn"t even hitting anything!"

"That sounds tough. Are you going back there now?"

"Yeah, but I don"t know how I"m gonna do that again," he turned his palms for me to see, "look!"

Angry red welts had formed along and below his fingers, lining his palms as well. They reminded me of my time rowing in my past life, and almost made me smile.

"Haha, she"s really working you hard. Those blisters you"ve got mean you"re becoming a man!"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Look, here"s some tips. Never – and I mean never – pick at them. Also, ask Freja for some super strong alchohol. Rub that on your blisters in the evening."

"What"s that gonna do?"

"It"ll toughen them up. In a few weeks, you"ll be able to swing those hammers with no worry!"

"Big bro, how do you know that?"

"Uh… father told me."

"I guess your dad would know."

I said goodbye to Davide at the door to college, and made my way in. I wanted to find the seclusion chambers, so I headed down the spiral staircase.

There was a pathway one floor down, but it was blocked off by an iron door. There was a slotted block by the side, so I brought out my ident.i.ty card and placed it in.

It glowed, then flashed red. Apparently, I wasn"t allowed in there. Maybe this was where the archivists worked?

The staircase continued, but there was no pathway for another three floors. Finally reaching the bottom, I was greeted with a large open hallway.

The hallway reached out much further than I thought. It was a few hundred feet long, maybe 15 feet wide and dozens of feet tall. Every wall was made of vast, impossibly smooth granite blocks.

The air down here was cool and still, and the few lights that ran along the floor emitted an eerie, flickering glow. It was hard to see clearly, but I noticed a few people halfway down the hall.

Two figures slowly emerged from the darkness as I walked towards them. They looked to be scholars, wearing the characteristic green robes.

"Who"s there?!" one of them called out.

"Oscar Schwarz," I replied, coming within a few feet of them.

On closer inspection, I recognised them from the meeting. They seemed to be older students and were slightly taller than me.

"Tai didn"t invite you," the one on the left spoke, "why are you here?"

"Dong told me there were seclusion chambers down here to cultivate in."

"Pft," he scoffed, "what, you can"t even cultivate with your mentor?"

"Nah, it"s not that. It was just too dangerous to cultivate there."

"Bulls.h.i.t," the one on the left called out. He crossed his arms and tilted his head, "Tai was right. You don"t even have a real mentor."

Before I could object, the other scholar chimed in.

"You know what, he could do with some "training"."

"Really, I just need a room…"

"What, so you can do nothing by yourself?"

"Forget it, I"m going." I tried to walk past the left scholar, but he grabbed my shoulder.

"Where do you think you"re going? These rooms are reserved, but don"t worry. We"ll treat you."

I tried to pull away, but his hand was like a vice. I channelled qi to my arm and tried to rip his hand off in anger, but it didn"t budge.

"Oh, we"ve got a fighter!" the right scholar laughed.

He stepped in front of me and grabbed my wrist. I almost yelped in pain as my bones crunched together. Where the h.e.l.l was this strength coming from?

"You really thought that you"d be stronger than us? We"ve had to work to get here, and you n.o.bles just swagger in and act like you own the place."

He rammed his face close to mine, staring at me with beady eyes.

"You don"t belong here, Schwarz."

There was a hiss and a clunk from further down the hallway, and the scholar backed off.

"Looks like Tai"s done. It"s your turn now."

The sharp crack of a fist on my back sent me sprawling on the floor. I coughed and looked up to see a pair of legs. A drop of liquid splattered on the floor, its light tap echoing down the hallway.

"Looks like breakfast will have to wait."

I recognised Tai"s voice in an instant. He grabbed my hair and wrenched my head upwards. I couldn"t help but tear up at the sudden jolt of pain.

"Already crying? This isn"t going to end well for you."

Tai stood before me, his robe hanging low at his waist. Furrows of blood ran down his chest, and something warm dripped from his hand down my forehead.

He dragged me by the hair through the hallway, and I was forced to crawl along. Grabbing my neck, he tossed me through a doorway, then slammed the door shut behind him.

The room before me was a vast granite cube. Dazzling lights lined every surface, nearly blinding me. I cracked open a single eye and caught the sight of a young scholar.

He was crumpled in the corner, his slack jaw resting in a pool of blood. His whole body was bruised a violent purple, save for his face which was left untouched.

Tai"s bare feet tapped lightly on the floor as he walked to the centre of the room.

"These rooms are fantastic." His voice was distorted, and almost demonic. "No force will break these walls. n.o.body comes here. And, most importantly, no sound can escape."

I picked up my head to look at him, channelling qi to my eyes.

Tai"s face was warped into a devilish grin, long black hair slicked back with blood and sweat. More blood dripped from his fists, steadily pattering on the floor.

Two monstrous golden arms of qi twisted from his shoulders; hands poised as if ready to tear at flesh. He tightened his belt, then brought his arms down in fists by his side.

"Now, shall we begin?"