“I stand, apart from those ties, yet you want me to bind myself to all?” Jovae Chanthel, gazing at the stars on a balcony in silence.

  A cheery voice met Hugh as he closed the door.

  “Hugh. How was the tour? Did you get to meet any of the masters or learn where we were?”

  Hugh shook his head, “No. She took me to the front of a building and told me to reach Condensation before entering.”

  Heron frowned before asking, “She didn’t say anything else?”

  Hugh wasn’t really trying to hide anything, nor did he think hiding anything really mattered so he said, “I have to stay here and cultivate to Condensation, but preferably Liquid, or I might accidentally be killed. Then I should go to the… Nexus? I think she called it.”

  Heron perked up at that word and quickly asked, “Did you say the Nexus?”

  Hugh was a little perplexed at the reaction but he nodded to affirm since it definitely sounded right after hearing Heron say it too.

  Heron said, “Oh. We’re somewhere in the Gardath Kingdom then. I wonder where.

  I don’t know all the towns there, I mean here. I can only say the capital has a teleporter for sure. I know that this is probably not the capital since I didn’t see a grand palace or anything on the way here, so… Hugh, did she say what kind of Nexus it was?”

  Hugh thought before speaking, “The, um, inner section?”

  His voice raised pitch at the end, clearly revealing his uncertainty. That was enough though since Heron knew Hugh had absolutely zero knowledge of the world.

  Heron still tried to confirm it though as he asked, “Did she call it an inner sector nexus?”

  Hugh said, “Yeah. That was it.”

  Heron was a little surprised, a little happy, but also a little worried. From what he understood, only powerful cultivators at or around the Encapsulation stage would hole themselves up around an Inner Sector Nexus.

  They were primary points of contact for the Gardath empire and were all built at locations where the ambient energy was the best for a given area.

  Heron knew that he was now stuck in the house after hearing that. He was a little bit indecisive about his current state. On one side, he felt great about snatching the rope that could lift him to a more comfortable life. On the other, he felt bad for stepping into the maw of a dragon whose only stay of execution was to remain as still as possible. Either way, the path forward was hoping for his supposed adopted nephew, Hugh, to pull the rope he was dangling up before the dragon’s jaws came clamping closed.

  Hugh noticed Heron's contemplation and waited patiently as several emotions obviously played across his face. Eventually, Heron closed his eyes and took a deep breath before asking, “All you have to do is reach Condensation?”

  Hugh nodded, “That’s what Hatia said. Though she said Liquid would be better.”

  Heron looked at the kid in front of him. Most kids were tested for talent well before their 10th birthday. After the results, they were given clear instructions and a path to walk early on to prepare them for the long road ahead.

  This kid had traveled across the unblessed lands, only to get sold as a slave, then bought and dragged to another part of the continent to prove his worth. To Heron’s knowledge, he had not received a single bit of real guidance. The only exception was the little bits of info he and the others in the cell told him. Which, was basically nothing since they were all mortals and could only go off of what others had said about how things felt or went.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Heron asked, “She really didn’t say anything else? Maybe about how to practice or anything like that?”

  Hugh shook his head, “No. That was all she said. That, and I might be killed if I don’t reach condensation before walking around.”

  Heron knew that made sense, “You remember the feeling in the cell when we all fell down? That was somebody annoyed at a stronger level. Though I don’t know how strong since they probably controlled it enough not to kill mortals like us at the time. But if you walked around, that would probably happen again, except they wouldn’t control it to not harm you. I guess we really are stuck for now.”

  Hugh didn’t really mind too much since he apparently had everything he needed. Yeah, it wasn’t the best, but it was pretty much what he wanted.

  Hugh walked to the back, headed toward the training room, and asked, “Could you show me how the training room works?”

  Heron shrugged and said, “Might as well since everything depends on you getting stronger at the moment.”

  Hugh waited while stepping into the room. He looked around but didn’t see anything new so his attention was mostly on the patterned floor.

  The raised slab in the room did nothing to draw his attention to the dull gray, even though it was obviously the focal point. Instead, the strangely spaced and patterned surrounding segments of the floor laid in an obviously intended design were the most eye-catching.

  While it looked intricate, there was a repetition to it. Each part connected with another letting Hugh barely make out symbols and lines that didn’t quite look like any writing he knew. Let alone the fact that it all seemed somewhat disjointed, as no shape or symbol seemed wholly connected to another. Instead, it was like each one was by itself and if it wasn’t for the surrounding patterns and lines, he would never have guessed they had anything to do with one another.

  After following along a certain section around the center with his eyes, he found that, in total, the pattern seemed to repeat three times.

  As he was inspecting the floor, Heron entered and said, “From what I understand, training rooms are pretty simple. At least the passive ones.”

  Hugh shifted his attention to Heron, waiting for a better explanation.

  Heron saw Hugh turn to look at him, so he gestured to the small raised segment in the middle. He said, “If this is a passive one like I think, then all you have to do is sit in the middle and there will be more energy gathered there so it is easier to absorb.”

  Hugh asked, “I don’t have to turn it on or anything?”

  Heron said, “I’m not too familiar with any of that, but there are probably ones you have to turn on.”

  Scratching the back of his head, Heron continued, “The energy in the room is already more abundant than outside the room. Even I can tell that as a mortal so don’t worry about it and go sit in the middle.”

  Hugh could feel the difference too, though it wasn’t that big of a difference, or as much as Heron’s words made it seem. He was new to this kind of thing though so he didn’t say anything more and slowly approached the center before sitting on the slab.

  Sitting cross-legged there, he looked around and felt like there was more surrounding energy than the outer edges of the room, but the slab beneath him was hard so he said, “Can you get me a pillow? This stone is hard.”

  Heron was flabbergasted that Hugh’s first thought sitting down was to get a pillow and said, “Yeah, yeah. Just start already and I’ll go grab one.”

  As Heron left the room, Hugh looked around from atop the slab. It was only from the center of the room that he noticed that there were certain points in the pattern surrounding him that seemed to almost point toward him now.

  Shaking his head, Hugh ignored the thought as he knew that he could probably stare at the ground all day and not figure out how any of it worked. Instead, he began to focus on his internal sensations as the density of energy where he sat was apparent, like Heron said. The only thing Hugh could liken it to was how the air felt wetter shortly after a dense rainfall despite no more water falling from the sky.

  Thinking about this phenomenon, Heron reappeared with a pillow in hand and tossed it at Hugh.

  Heron left after saying, “I’ll go do something else.”

  Hugh only realized when the pillow hit one of his knees and barely registered what Heron said. It had bounced off of his knee and was a couple of feet away. He didn’t mind though as he got up to grab the pillow that had bounced on the ground.

  Placing it down on the slab, he tried to get comfy sitting cross-legged atop it, only to find the pillow wasn’t very soft. He couldn’t complain though since the fleeting thought was not a big deal. It was still better than the hard slab.

  Refocusing on the sensation he felt, Hugh began to steady his breath and attempt to draw the energy around himself inside. He hadn’t been able to do so since he was at the auction and was happy to find it was so easy here.

  Slowly, the energies that were drawn into his lungs began to suffuse his upper torso before being steadily pulled toward a point in the center of his body.

  It was there that it seemed to enter a point and almost disappear.

  Time slowly passed for Heron as he stepped in every now and then, checking on Hugh. Every time he entered the training area, Hugh had his eyes closed and was doing what he needed to.

  Heron went to sleep in one of the rooms and when he woke up, he found Hugh still sitting there like a statue. The only change was a very subtle movement of his clothes as Hugh took slow deep breaths.

  It was almost a full day later when Heron was resting in the front room when Hugh came from the back.