Jorish stood, his hands grasped on his staff. He felt his own anxiety as pain invaded his wrists before he slightly relaxed his grip. He stared at the origin of his anxiety in front of him.

A shelled monstrosity stood in front of him. As tall as half a man, the creature stood on it’s long, thin legs. Jorish kept his eyes glued on the creature making sure to pay attention to its sharp claws, almost shuddering, as he remembered the first time he faced a Kreil three months ago, almost losing his life until Traves intervened.

Breaking the standoff was the Kreil’s shrieks as it rushed off with its claws poised to strike. Jorish tensed up again as he held the staff up with its tip aimed downwards. The moment the Kreil jumped up, aiming its claws at his neck, he made his move.

Moving as he practiced the last few months. He stepped back, swinging his staff upwards. His staff hit the Kreil on its shell, throwing it off balance as it missed him, falling to the side in momentary confusion. Jorish didn’t hesitate as he stepped forward putting his entire weight behind a downwards swing.

The staff swung down, aiming to crush the Kreil’s head. The Kreil shifted slightly just before the staff hit causing the staff to barely miss, putting Jorish slightly off-balance, and making him open to the Kreil’s counter.

Jorish eyes tightened as he saw the Kreil recover and jump on him to take advantage of the opening that he created. He was about to accept his failure as he saw Traves put his hand on his sheath.

I can’t keep going on with this losing mindset, He will not always be here to save me.

With nothing to lose, he made use of the moment it took for the Kreil to recover. He widened his grip on the staff. As the Kreil jumped, he stepped forwards while pushing the staff edge to the edge while raising the staff’s edge, hitting the Kreil’s head as he was almost face to face with it.

As the Kreil lost balance again, even more disoriented, as its claws missed having never expecting Jorish to step forward. Jorish took his chance and instead of swinging down widely, he jabbed the staff’s edge on the Kreil’s head over and over. Finally, after a while it stopped moving, then he let his staff slip from his hands in a mix of exhaustion, frustration, and excitement.

At that moment, clapping was heard behind him as Traves walked closer to him

“Here stands Jorish, Hero of the desert! Killer of Kreil! Master of the stick!”

“It's a staff, and you forced me to use it” protested Jorish before continuing

“Do you have any idea how much of a genius idea it would be to add a sharp point on this thing? How very useful would that be?” said Jorish mockingly before continuing “Oh, of course, they call that a spear, A damn SPEAR. Why couldn’t someone be gracious enough to get me a spear instead of this?”

Traves sighed before he replied, “Come on, oh master of the stick, don’t be grumpy!”

“Traves, are you still bullying our friend here? Are you finally showing your real colors after all the trouble you caused him?” said Cail before turning to Jorish

“He might or might’ve not, it’s Traves we are talking about here, told you this earlier but he is still looking at what weapons would suit you best. Meanwhile, a staff is a good baseline to learn, if you master the staff, you could move to other similar weapons. Or move to different weapons as you learn the fundamentals.” said Cail before getting interrupted

“Yea! And maybe one day, you would have the chance to wield, wait for it, a spear!” grinned Traves as Jorish sighed as he finally gathered his strength to stand up

“So, I haven’t been able to ask this for the last while due to my uhh, stick training, if you may call it so. But where are we headed right now?”

Cail shook his head as Traves’ smile got wider “Well my friend, this may shock you!”

Full with anticipation Jorish perked up as he faced Traves, his thoughts wild

Are we going to the capital to face the Tyrant? No, I don’t see a reason for Traves to really care. I mean he doesn’t care about anything particularly, maybe only food? Oh, are we going to some gourmet secret location that hosts the world’s greatest food? Or are we possibly going on a trip to some secret training grounds? Some relics? Or maybe, we are going out of the cities to go to some other region?

Out of his thoughts, Jorish noticed that Traves is yet to continue “Uh, So tell me. Where are we headed?”

“Are you ready for it?”

“Yes, Please tell me.”

“Great! I don’t know where we are going!” smiled Traves

“What?” stared Jorish at Traves emotionlessly before Cail’s explained “Traves has, literally, rolled a few dice to decide on a direction to walk. So we literally don’t know where we are going. Just the direction we are going through.”

Jorish stood still, unsure how to react until he was interrupted by Traves

“In all seriousness, you have done well so far Jorish. However, this is but the very start.” continued Traves “What do you know about the cultivation of the body?”

“Not much, Most of what I know is from rumors or what I have read. I do know that some people could reach the extremes of power just from cultivating and building up their bodies.” paused Jorish before continuing “I have for a while tried to find a way to do it. Since, as you might know, I lack the talent for energy.”

“So, how did that go?”

“I trained, built up my body. As you mentioned previously, I am physically strong. Mostly due to that training. However…”

“You hit a wall”

Jorish turned his head as Cail had said what he wanted to say before Traves explained

“If you think about it, it would make sense. No matter how much training you do, you are made of flesh and bones. You are a human.”

“I know this might be a bit counterintuitive, but think about it. Fire burns flesh. No matter how much you build your body, that fact is true. A sharp enough blade will cut through flesh and bones without issues regardless of how well you train.”

Hearing Traves’ words put Jorish in a trance momentarily until he recovered and asked “What about people like Vathlauss? Is he not a human?”

“If I might, before Traves explain how this works further. Let me correct a small misconception you have.” said Cail “Cultivating the body is not an alternative for people who can’t cultivate energy, instead it is a base.”

“A base?”

“Just a moment Cail, I think I have a demonstration that can help explain some things,” said Traves as he momentarily vanished and reappeared further ahead, holding a Kreil by its head in his hand as it kept struggling and tried to cut him, without results.

“I assume you know the absolute basics of how energy works. Regardless of what stage of energy cultivation you have reached, it will be stored in your body.” said Traves “Such energy is gentle. But that is only compared to the other forms such energy can take”

Jorish could see thin lines coming out of the Kreil’s head as energy flowed to it, reinforcing it. He could feel the Kreil’s claws getting sharper, its muscles harder and stronger.

Until in a few moments it exploded into a rain of blood and flesh.

Traves reappeared a few steps back, miraculously with his clothes stainless before he turned into Jorish, whos pupils had momentarily forgotten how to function as he stared at him “What? Do you know how hard it is to get a change of clothes around here?” grumbled Traves before getting serious again

“Flesh can only handle so much energy at a time. Your body is like a balloon.” Continued Traves as he turned his head towards the blown corpse “If you overfill a normal balloon it will explode. So how do we store more air inside a balloon?”

“We, uh, get a bigger balloon?”

“Brilliant idea, Jorish. Perhaps I would just cut you and pray that you reincarnate as a Giant! You will have a really big balloon then!” grinned Traves before correcting Jorish “Perhaps it might make some sense, but we humans are limited with what we have. Which is why we cultivate our bodies.”

“Don’t mix things up Jorish. Training might be the first step on the road, but to let the physical shackles be broken, you must rebuild the balloon.”

“Slowly, change it up, until it has changed enough that you can remake into something else. Slowly replace the thin outside with a thicker one, part by part, until the entire thing is something new.”

“But… How would you do that as a human?”

“With a lot of suffering and pain of course!” sighed Jorish as he knew Traves wasn’t going to explain any further at that point

“I want to ask, why did I never hear of such a move? Inserting energy to blow people up? I would’ve thought monarchs or candidates would use that.”

“Just think about what you just said, young friend. Such a method only works against someone who is significantly, and I mean significantly, weaker than you. And even then, why grab someone and use so much pointless energy when it is much easier to burn, freeze, cut or even spear them?”

Jorish just couldn’t get used to being called young over and over. It did make sense if what he knew of how long the traveler has been around. It still didn’t make it any less awkward for a man in his late 30s being called young.

“In any case, don’t rush things, my young friend. I will assist you for a while. I do still need to thank you for that exquisite meal we had last time.”

“Perhaps you could thank me by giving me one of those things that are cooling you right now? If not for the occasional shade and cool air I would’ve died already from the heat.”

“Man up my friend! You are a man of the cities!”

“You just said the flesh burns as a rule of the universe. And I am on fire here.”

The duo kept bickering as Cail walked behind them sighing, as he always did before he stopped for a moment and turned his head to the west.

Noticing Cail’s action, Traves turned serious as he asked. “An enemy?”

Cail’s eyes shone blue for a moment before turning back to their grey color “No, I think there is some village there.”

Traves’ eye shone as he smiled and looked in the direction Cail indicated. “Alright then, let’s go!”

At that moment, two sighs were heard as the party moved towards the unknown village.