It took the rest of the day, two separate trips to a communal bathhouse he was allowed to go to, and a replacement outfit to finally get the stench out. On the plus side, however, after all the smelly business was said and done, he felt better than ever before. His body still bore the scars of past abuse, but he could feel his body fix itself bit by bit each time he cultivated his energy. But once that was said and done, he found himself on his room's floor once again with his teacher, eager to learn his next steps.

  He was wearing a gold and red mask today.

  "Now that I can tolerate your presence again, I shall teach your final lesson, for now that is."

  He pulled out the magic canvas scroll and began to draw elaborate images of walls and people once again.

  "Now that you have had your first breakthrough, your body has gone past the limits of your own self; the barrier you might reach were you to stay as a mortal. Because of this, you will have an easier time cultivating the Black Steel Fortress and incorporating its lessons into your body."

  He rolled out the scroll, its contents were an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of black ink and gold leaf.

  "It may seem incomprehensible now, but if you inject a small amount of energy, the information will be transferred into your mind. Once you do that, you'll need to properly learn and practice it, you may begin when ready."

  Jack took a breath as he moved his hand onto the paper, circulating a mote of spirit into the page. In an instant, images and ideas flooded into his brain, proper breathing and bodily stances, the smallest of details on how to modulate your spirit, and even the best drugs to take to maximize the effects of cultivating it. The scroll taught Jack everything he would even consider regarding the Black Steel Fortress, from history to the aforementioned usage, and it told him every secret it held. It took a second for all this to occur, and in the next, he wretched his hand away from it.

  "Heh, it can be overwhelming the first time around, but you'll get used to it, or don't, either way, I'll get a laugh out of it."

  He collapsed the canvas and sat in a chair he had brought with him, placing three bottles of pills and an orb with coppery bands around it.

  "The pills are made for metal cultivation; they will refill your spirit and absorb impurities, while the orb is a cultivation aide called the 'Copper Bridge', a common tool used by most sages. It'll increase the efficiency of your cultivation if you add it to your circulation, but in the long term, you shouldn't rely too heavily on it, your own ability to cultivate larger and denser energies may be crippled if you don't learn to do it independently."

  The orb was cool to the touch and made of some kind of glass or crystal. In the back of his head, he could feel the now familiar sensation of metal. The pills likewise held the same energy, but much less so, and were full of a more generic feeling spirit energy. Taking the orb and pill in hand, he swallowed one and held the other, using the images of a similar item from the scroll to move the energy from his inner core through the orb and back into himself. The spirit that resulted from this process was much more refined and felt more like metal, and while it lost that whole body warmth Jack had come to enjoy, he certainly appreciated the strength he felt from this refined energy. Minutes ticked by before he took another pill, noticing that in the brief moments of not circulating, the colors of the room were more vibrant and easier on the eyes.

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  "I feel... amazing!"

  "Mhm, you will, but don't let the high of cultivation make you arrogant. Your technique will make you tougher than most, but you'll only be somewhat stronger than most mortals. This means you're much weaker than most sages, a dangerous prospect."

  "But other techniques will give me that strength?"

  "Perhaps, if you abandon your metal cultivation and pursue your Sky Dragon Arts, then you should have such destructive power in spades, but until we begin to translate it, there is the chance it simply has the inverse issue of this, negating the benefit in some ways. For today and the journey to the sect, you will focus on the Black Steel Fortress until we find more techniques for you."

  "Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you, if that's alright."

  "You may."

  "What is your name?"

  He had this concerned slash confused look, but realized something quickly and looked amused more than anything.

  "I forget my reputation is missing from your people, I had thought that you already knew, or that my granddaughter told you."

  He stood up and spread out his frail-looking arms.

  "I, once known as the Little Eagle, I, who am the emperor's companion, I who bested the world's greatest eater, am named Shin."

  Jack didn't know what to think, but Jack also knew better than to assume what any of that meant.

  "I am honored?"

  "Bah, don't start pretending like that means anything to you, I've had bad relations with the tribesmen for far too long to receive respect from one of theirs."

  ....Ok?

  "I'm going to go back to cultivating now."

  "Best that you do."

  Moving on, Jack turned back inwards, moving the energy round and around until it was time to push it into his body. Bone to steel, muscle to iron, nerves like copper, and blood like molten gold, he repeated the mantra for an hour before he felt the energy grow cold, stopping for another moment before chewing on the metallic bitter pill.

  "When you're done with this, I want you to clean up and get ready to head out."

  "I thought I didn't leave until tomorrow?"

  "You do, but there are matters we will need to address before then."

  "Cool."

  Jack returned to his practice, Shin's slight confusion only just audible.

  Veins of crystal, and an unyielding heart, he would be unassailable, Jack chanted to himself.

  An hour later, he was making his way back from the bath house, guard in tow as he used the slightest motes of spirit to warm himself from the frigid water. Making it back to his room, he strapped his knife to his hip and stood outside waiting for Shin.

  "Follow me, you are to observe and follow my directions exactly, am I understood?"

  "Yes, sir."

  He looked for a second longer before turning away and leading Jack and his guard away. Passing back through the different gardens and buildings, they went through the mighty set of gates that he and the translator had passed through. The oddest thing was that most of the people who passed them would bow, only stopping once they went through a second set of gates at the base of the stairs and into the lower city. The smell was somewhat tolerable at the top, but once they crossed over, the more concentrated smell of a pre-industrial city hit the trio's noses. Somehow more tolerable than the impurity he expelled from his breakthrough. Master Shin spoke to the guard with a grimace, who nodded and made a series of hand gestures to the soldiers they passed. One of them ducked into a small room attached to the gatehouse and hurried over, handing the guard several chalk white sticks, who in turn gave them to his teacher. Both men took one and rubbed the chalky dust just under their noses, his guard held one out to him.

  "Fragrant Sticks, they help with the smell, most of the time."

  Taking one, Jack rubbed a little bit on himself, smelling the strong scent of lavender and citrus, infinitely preferable to the rotten fecal smells he was getting.

  "Depending on your fortune, you may want to consider buying them in bulk in the future or contracting someone to make them. Your sense of smell will get more intense as you grow."

  Jack noted it alongside 'don't die' and 'home'.

  "What is the plan, master?"

  "General shopping mainly, but several important items will need to be purchased before I will let you leave tomorrow."

  "Like what?"

  "The first thing any decent sage should have, a good set of robes and a good weapon."