Chapter 4: chapter 3- the journey to four

"RYAN!!!" Mother screamed in panic.

to her, she just walked in to see her child covered in a strange black substance. it didn't help that it smelt like something had died. then the door smashed into the wall as the father burst in. a hulking mass of muscle ready to kill. when he saw the scene in the room he was dumbfounded. he was ready for a fight! so... wheres the fight?

Ryan did not care for his parents' confusion. He simply pointed at himself and said "Stinky!" SIgh~ the Draco family truly had it hard. most babies' first words are "mama" or "dada" but for Ryan, they were "stinky". In his own words

"they come when I cry so if I need them that is what I do"

sadly for the Draco family, it won't be until he is two that Ryan will stop doing this. But at this moment none of that mattered, Ryan wanted to be cleaned and he will get it! he pointed at himself and said in a loud and commanding voice

"STINKY!!" His voice was like the undeniable command of a king... well at least to him. To his parents, it was a little less powerful and more adorable. Adorable and hilarious.

"HAHA" they laughed at his commanding voice... for a long time. Much too long in Ryan's option.

[why are they laughing? they should be cleaning me already!]

finally, after a while of laughing Mother looked into Father's eyes and there seemed to be a silent communication between them. Mother went to wash Ryan while Father went to go see the doctor. it took about 10 minutes for the doctor to show up and by that time Ryan was nice and clean. when the doctor saw him, he didn't even have time to blink before he was in her arms.

"He really did it! a child not even one-year-old... I don't know if I should be awed or terrified" She said with a voice that seemed both excited and exasperated.

"terrified? Isn't this a good thing?" said mother.

"You don't realize how big this is! he's gone through his first attunement! do you know what that means?!" the doctor's excitement seemed to be growing.

"It means that his body has been purified and he can now feel qi?" Mother said sounding unsure.

"ok... that's not wrong but entirely right. you see every person who goes through attunement absorbs the same amount of qi to be used during purification. that means he got the same amount of qi used to purify full-grown adults. all used in his small child body, and now all of his growth will be held to that quality. That means his body is just as pure as someone whose been through 2 attunements and then some. also, as the number of attunements grows, the purity of your body rises exponentially." now the doctor took a deep breath. "In short... your child is a monster." the doctor said.

"Oh..." Mother said dumbly.

Father on the other hand said "So... Fuck yeah?... I might not be the smartest, and some of that went over my head, but I definitely heard that my son is amazing. So... Fuck yeah!"

Both women in the room Gave Father a look that seemed to say 'are you stupid?'

"well... I guess he's not wrong. This could be a good thing. Let's just keep this to ourselves for now." the doctor said while giving father a pointed look at the last part.

they all nodded. after all, you never knew what people would do when faced with such talent.

slowly time passed and Ryan grew. he went from a toddler to a crawling menace. then he became a walking disaster. finally, when he was four he became a reasonable child... kinda.

...

he dodged the swing from the sword going to his left, quickly he charged forward to get in his enemies guard. he swung at his opponent's feet to trip him up. Yet he was dodged with a quick sidestep. the sword he had dodged before swiftly return coming towards his back. he lunged to get out of the way, successfully getting out of the way but putting too much weight on his left foot. his opponent would not let this flaw go unpunished and quickly gave him a kick!

Ryan landed on his back as the breath flew out of his chest. then the tip of his father's wooden sword landed on his neck.

"good job," his father said "for a child at least, but that's not good enough for you. is it?" there was a hint of sarcasm and exasperation in his voice.

"nope!" Ryan said, giving a full toothy smile.

"Haa~ you know most kids don't start training until after they form their cores? Don't you think that means you could take a little break? I'm sure your mother would be ecstatic!" His father tried once again to make him take a break. You know what they say 816th times the charm!

"While I would love to make mother happy, No" Ryan said with a cheeky smile.

His father just sighs and started to make his way back to the house. Ryan followed along, already daydreaming of his mother's food. the path they took lead them through the village. the village was quaint and beautiful. the roads were just packed dirt and the houses were all made of the dark swirl wood, which was a specialty of this village. with the vibrant green grass contrasting with the dark wood and the forest as a backdrop, the village looked like a painting. few people lived around 300 give or take. Most of which were born and raised in this town. the only person that could be said to have seen the world was grandma Irene, the doctor who helped birth Ryan.

Ryan and his father arrived at there home that had the smell of delicious food wafting out. As they passed through the door they could see mother and grandma Irene talking at the table. they stood up to welcome us. father gave mother a hug while Ryan gave one to Grandma.

"How was your training?" Mother asked with a smile on her face.

"I won but he gave me a few good whacks," Father said with pride.

Mother quickly stop paying him any attention and went to talk to her son. "are you all righ-" but she could not finish because Ryan was already at the table with a plate ready.

"Ok... I'll take that as a yes"

thus they went along with the energetic child and had their dinner. The dinner consisted of a slow-cooked roast with a side of baked potato and a tossed salad. All of the food was well cooked and beautifully seasoned. after they had there meal Ryan finally realized that it was weird to have grandma eat with them.

"So why are you here granny?" He asked.

She raised one brow "Finally thought to ask huh?" she said dryly. Ryan at least had the sense to look guilty.

"I'm here to give you a lesson about cultivation brat," She said

"Really! but I thought you all said it was against the rules to tell me before I was six" Ryan spoke with shock and happiness.

"well, you see I realized something about the rules..." She paused looking like she was bout to share a world-changing secret, "I don't care".

"... we can do that? just ignore the rules?" Ryan spoke with awe in his voice.

"I can" was her only reply.

"Now on to the lesson!" she called with vigor as she got out a stack of paper and a pen.

"First there are the attunements, for reference which one are you on currently?"

"I'm nearly at the third, probably will reach it this week," Ryan said nonchalantly as he got comfortable for the lesson.

Grandma Irene took a moment to digest that then moved on.

"Well, first I should say that most kids go through there first attunement when they are seven. Mainly because they start there training at six. Now, why do we start at six? Do you have a guess?" she paused to let him interject.

"...Because they can focus more at that age?" Ryan paused for a second then spoke uncertainly.

"No, but that is a good guess. you see at six children naturally awaken there spiritual sense which allows them to sense qi," she spoke then tried to continue but Ryan interrupted with a question.

"But I could sense qi since I went through my first attunement?" he asked.

"That is the main reason that I say you're a monster. Everyone else in the world first senses qi and then cultivates. You cultivated based only on the sense of your body. This comes with many bonuses because your method is perfectly suited to your body. I truly don't know how you did that." she paused and looked at him, hoping for an answer.

"I just did what felt best" he shrugged.

"yes well, us normal people can't do that. So we start our training at six. then we keep them training until they turn twelve and form their cores. So naturally, the next question should be what is the core. well, the core is the center of power in our body. It is where we store most of our qi and the required part for true cultivation. So what's the connection between The attunements and the core? well, the quality of a core is based on a persons talent and their attunements. The talent decides the color of the core and the attunements the grade." She paused for breath and gave Ryan a moment to digest what she had said.

"continuing on, after you form your core you can no longer go through any more attunements. you can go through cleansing to rid your body of impurities, but that is not an attunement" she said, then she was once again interrupted by Ryan.

"what's the difference?" he asked.

"simple an attunement is permanent. After going through an attunement your body will always remain as pure as it was made, but after a cleansing impurity will slowly gather in your body until its back to the way it was before." she patiently answered his question.

"Now where was I... ah, the list! so the list of core color from weakest to strongest is

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gold

then there are nine grades based on how many attunements you did." as she said this she wrote all of it down on a piece of paper. "you got all that?"

"yeah I got" he replied confidently.

"good. So now the question is... why the hell did I tell you this? I could have not told you and you would have trained just as hard and would learn when you were six. You truly don't need to know this at this time." she said then gave him a look, encouraging him to come up with an answer.

"... I don't know" after thinking for a while he could not come up with an answer.

"no shame and saying you don't know, its how you learn," she said with a gentle smile. "let me ask you if kids start training at six then how high of an attunement do you think they get?"

Suddenly Ryan was enlightened " I would say four on average, and that would make me a monster when compared to other kids!"

"close but you still overestimate them. the average number is three. thus you truly are a monster." she said with an accomplished smile, but then she changed to a sharp look. "so why am I telling you this?"

he stopped to think for a moment. he could tell that his answer was important to her. after a while, he spoke "you don't want me to tell others my attunement level? because the other kids might be sad?"

She broke out into a smile hearing his answer. "yes and no. Yes, I don't want you to share your level but it's not to spare the feelings of a child I don't know. Its because talent draws both awe and envy. if people knew you talent they might do something stupid in there jealousy." she gave him a stern but caring look, and asked "can you do this for me"

Ryan nodded confidently towards the old lady "you can count on me! I'll never tell a soul"

she smiled gently happy with his answer. "well the night is young, would you like to here a story child?" she spoke knowing he loved her stories from far away lands.

Ryan's small little face seemed to glow with happiness "yes please!"

"haha well once upon a time there was a knight..."