Eseaki, Bella's husband, had once been a strong martial artist. He had reached the Peak Divine Master stage of martial arts.
When he started training us, the first thing he told us was that foundation was the most important stage.
"The foundation of one's cultivation can separate them from everyone else," Eseaki explained. "With a weak foundation, you might have ten to a hundred times the strength of an average person. With a strong foundation, you can have thousands, even ten thousand times the strength of a normal person."
Eseaki took us to choose our Foundation Arts.
He then said, "These are the strongest techniques I have: Time, Space, Phoenix Fire, Water Serpent, Earth Dragon, Sky King, Dark Spirit, and Divine Light."
My brother and I read through all the books. After I finished reading Time, Space, and Dark Spirit, a status menu popped up in front of me.
[Compatible Foundation Arts Detected]
Time + Space + Dark Spirit
Do you want to combine these arts to create Void?
[Yes] [No]
I pressed yes.
The three arts combined into Void, and I started cultivating.
My brother Rell read through the rest. His status menu allowed him to combine the elemental arts with Divine Light, creating Divine Elements.
Eseaki told us to take our time absorbing the techniques and not rush our foundations.
We took our time trying to truly understand our techniques.
Rell placed himself in environments rich with the different elements, watching how they moved separately and how they worked together in harmony. He wanted to understand how Fire, Water, Earth, and Air truly moved instead of simply knowing how to use them.
He began to understand why Earth was used for protection, why Air was used for movement, why Water was used for healing, and why Fire was used for damage.
What was hardest for him was understanding how the Divine element played into everything.
He thought about it for a long time until he finally understood.
Divine acted like an enhancer.
It strengthened what was already there and gave each element a more direct purpose.
Earth became stronger protection.
Air became better movement.
Water became stronger healing.
Fire became greater destruction.
Once Rell understood that, he wasn't just combining elements anymore.
He was beginning to understand why his Divine Elements worked.
Void was a little harder for me.
I first had to figure out how to define Time, how to connect to Space, and what Darkness actually was.
So I started by looking at them separately before trying to understand them together.
For my training, I placed myself in a completely dark room where no light could enter. Then I tried to keep track of the space around me, the passing of time, and the darkness all at once.
Connecting to the Darkness wasn't all that difficult.
The hard part was maintaining an active sense of Time while still understanding the Space around me.
After struggling with it for a while, I changed how I approached it.
Instead of trying to focus on everything equally, I focused on the feeling of Time and used the Darkness to help me perceive the Space around me.
That worked wonders.
The darkness stopped being something that simply surrounded me.
It became something I could use to understand the space I was standing in, while Time gave me something constant to follow.
For the first time, I started to understand how the three could connect.
And through that connection, I began to understand Void.
It took both me and my brother week to understand our text and then another week reach Beginner Foundation.
When Master Eseaki checked our strength, he said I had reached around 1,000 times the strength of an average person.
Rell had reached 1,500 times.
Then we learned about another part of cultivation: Potential.
Potential was divided into four grades:
Low → Medium → High → Peak
Rell had High Potential.
I had Medium Potential.
The difference in our potential was already showing, so I knew I would have to work extra hard.
I also started to understand why Master Eseaki had told us to take our time absorbing our techniques. With Void and Divine Elements as our foundations, getting stronger came easily once we had properly established them.
While we trained our techniques, we still made sure to train our bodies.
That part came a lot easier because Rell had been really into the gym back on Earth, so I let him build our workout routine. Having someone who already understood how to train properly made improving physically a lot easier.
The way our bodies developed was different, though.
Rell worked toward building an efficient, balanced frame. He wanted strength, speed, endurance, flexibility, and overall control without pushing too heavily toward one area.
His reason was adaptability.
He wanted a body that could handle whatever situation he ended up in.
I went in a different direction.
I focused much more heavily on strength and speed.
I wasn't trying to make everything perfectly balanced. I still trained the rest of my body, but strength and speed were where I put most of my attention.
Part of the reason was my Time ability.
Using Time still took a toll on me, even when I controlled it properly. But as I got better with it, I realized I could stretch how my body worked a little.
Not enough to ignore the strain.
Not enough to make the cost disappear.
But enough that I could take advantage of a body built around explosive strength and speed.
Rell was preparing himself to adapt to anything.
I was preparing myself to hit hard, move fast, and make every second I controlled matter.
It took about one month for both of us to reach Peak Foundation.
Afterward, Master Eseaki told us it was time to carve our own paths.
So my brother and I decided to set off through the forest toward a village in the western part of the region.
We thanked Bella and Eseaki for everything they had done for us, but before we could leave, one of Bella's children asked if she could come with us. She wanted to become a mage.
Bella and Master Eseaki seemed okay with it, so we agreed to let her come with us.
Then we set off.
As we traveled, I thought about the status menu that had appeared when Rell and I arrived in this world.
The people of this world didn't have levels like we did.
Levels belonged to Otherworlders.
Rell and I were both Level 10.
I also had 15 unused skill points.
I could put them into:
Intelligence
Strength
Endurance
Absorption
Dexterity
I decided to save my points. I didn't know what I would need them for yet, and I didn't want to waste them.
Before long, the three of us reached the edge of the forest.