“So you can make any talisman you want on the fly?” Kevin asked, eyebrows rising at the insane versatility.

  Any talisman that I’ve memorized the pattern for, Amelia wrote with a shrug.

  “Right,” Kevin nodded, calming down at that addition. He hadn’t memorized any of his formation patterns; it was complicated enough just copying them. Talismans might be a little smaller, but it would still be tough to remember every little detail.

  Not to mention the Qi cost of creating them on the fly. No wonder she’d mentioned needing all her energy for talismans. While Amelia might be on a whole other level when it came to versatility, she’d lost out on the other major benefit talismans provided.

  “That’s still really impressive,” he continued, getting a bright smile in response. “But it does mean cultivation is even more vital for you.

  We need to get those energy reserves up if you want that to be sustainable.”

  Amelia’s smile shifted into an adorable pout, but still nodded.

  Fine, I can’t refute your argument. Let’s get this over with.

  Kevin shook his head at her reluctance but kept quiet as he led the way toward the bridge crossing the chasm.

  The Earth courtyard bucked the trend in the rest of the sect, containing almost as many people as usual. While it would have been nice to find a place closer to the center, there were still plenty of spots near the edge.

  Soaked stone greeted Kevin as they arrived while Amelia unrolled her mat nearby. “I don’t suppose you have a technique for drying stone?” He asked with a sigh, not really expecting much.

  Amelia placed a finger on her lips and tilted her head as if giving his question serious thought. Then her face brightened as she nodded with enthusiasm.

  “Oh,” Kevin grinned back, his posture perking up. “Please go ahead. I’d appreciate a dry seat a lot.”

  Amelia’s expression shifted into focused concentration as she gestured to the ground at his feat. At first, it looked like nothing was happening, then the darker shades of the wet stone bled away.

  It looked like she was dragging all the water in a circle outward, leaving a dry area large enough to fit him. A few fresh droplets fell onto it as he watched, but it was still leagues better than before.

  “Thanks,” Kevin said, giving her a bright smile even as he sank into place. No doubt it would be soaked again by the time they were done, but it was a lot more of a pleasant start.

  “That was awesome.”

  You are welcome, Amelia wrote with a brief curtsy. It was a simple feat. Water is one of my sub-aspects, so such a minor manipulation was of no particular difficulty.

  Let me know if it becomes too unpleasant again, and I can repeat the process.

  “It didn’t look simple to me,” Kevin snorted, shaking his head. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

  He paused as a thought struck him, along with a hint of guilt. “I should be good now; if the dampness builds up gradually, I won’t even notice it.” Working on Amelia’s Qi reserves was the point of being here, so he shouldn’t ask her to spend more energy helping him.

  Amelia raised an eyebrow and stared at him for a long moment before nodding gracefully. Let us begin then, she wrote before stowing her paper away and settling into position.

  Nodding, Kevin focused on using his tattoo to gather fresh Earth Qi to replace what he’d used earlier. Nearby, he could sense Amelia sinking into position on her mat, energy beginning to flow toward her.

  It was time to cultivate.

  Amelia lasted less than half an hour before she began shifting on her mat, drawing Kevin’s attention away from deep focus.

  After refreshing his free-floating Earth Qi reserves, he’d switched to pulling stored Fire Qi into his sealed land. The energy he’d cultivated earlier had burnt up, so he was ready for another batch.

  He was partway through this process when he noticed Amelia’s odd actions through a mixture of hearing and his spiritual senses.

  Every time he’d seen her, Amelia’s actions had been filled with effortless grace. Often, she rested in stillness as if waiting for the next time she had to move.

  Even her reactions, such as covering her face when she laughed, were performed so deliberately it felt more like a conscious choice than an involuntary motion.

  Snapping his eyes open, Kevin turned to check that she was alright.

  At first glance, things looked normal enough. Amelia sat on her mat in a perfect lotus position while Earth Qi flowed across her skin. It was like she’d covered herself in a thick layer of energy, which sank into her skin in blank areas where she had no tattoos.

  It wasn’t a cultivation style he’d encountered before, but there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it from what he could sense. Yet despite that, he noticed the look of discomfort on her face on closer inspection.

  Along with the continued shifting of her whole body on the mat, it worried him enough to break her concentration.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Amelia,” he said in a low voice, not wanting to surprise her too much. “Hey, are you all right?”

  Amelia’s eyes cracked open as she stared over, blinking at him. Then, her face flushed a deep red, contrasting starkly with her normal paper-white complexion.

  Her hand darted into a sleeve with almost her usual grace as she pulled out a blank page.

  Sorry! I didn’t mean to disturb you.

  Amelia looked away as she wrote, covering her face with her other hand. It did little to hide her obvious embarrassment.

  “It’s fine. I was just worried something had gone wrong,” Kevin shook his head and pushed himself into a standing position. “You looked a little uncomfortable.”

  His words did little to calm her down; if anything, Amelia flushed even harder. The ink from her previous words retracted in an instant and then flowed out into fresh writing.

  Oh… No, I’m fine. Nothing went wrong with my cultivation. I was just… I mean…

  I tried to focus for as long as possible. Sorry again.

  “It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Kevin responded, his tone calm and reassuring. “If you’re fine, then there’s no issue,” he continued, eying her writing as he tried to make sense of it.

  The sentences were choppier than her usual elegant style, betraying her discomfort even more than her face. This had to be deeper than just being worried she’d disturbed him.

  At a guess, it was an issue she was already profoundly embarrassed about, which he’d exacerbated by bringing it up.

  Was that why she’d been so reluctant to start the cultivation session?

  His mind whirled as he took slow steps over toward her. “Was it too boring?” He hazarded a guess, clued in by how she’d mentioned trying to focus.

  Amelia continued to stare away, covering her face as she refused to look at him. However, fresh words began forming despite that.

  It’s so dumb. I can spend all day reading books or practicing new techniques without issue. Other people have told me they couldn’t focus for half as long.

  Yet when something is boring, I can’t even keep it up for an hour.

  It’s why I’m so weak.

  She seemed to wilt away as she wrote the last few words as if weighed down by shame.

  Kevin paused his advance, opening his mouth, then closing it again as he struggled to find the right words. It seemed he’d stumbled onto a more serious issue than he’d thought.

  This was a conversation he needed to handle with care.

  His first instinct was to refute her claim of being weak. It felt like he’d only seen the surface of her insane well of techniques. Along with her crazy learning ability, he’d built her into something of a prodigy in his mind.

  Yet, something told him that was the wrong approach since there was a seed of truth to her worries.

  She was the same age as Brad, yet more than an entire stage behind him. And even Brad mentioned that mastering the fragments of his family’s techniques had slowed him down.

  Hell, she was at around the average level for most of the new disciples, and they were two or three years younger than her. That spoke to the indisputable fact that she was falling behind in advancement compared to her peers.

  Trying to contract an obvious fact would be of no help at all. Instead, he had to talk around it.

  “Well, you’re hardly alone there,” Kevin chuckled lightly as he took a few steps closer. “You’re still far stronger than this old man,” he continued, trying to lighten the mood.

  It seemed to work. Amelia froze momentarily, then turned back to him, the flush slowly fading from her face.

  You’re not that old.

  “I look great for my age, I know,” Kevin responded, keeping his tone light. Most people likely underestimated his age, given the work Max had done when healing him. His advancement was far too low for longevity benefits, so most would assume he had none.

  “But I’m thirty-four. That’s what, thirteen years older than you? And I’m not even out of the first stage yet.”

  Twelve years, but I suppose I see your point. You were an outsider, though; cultivation didn’t exist for you until recently.

  You’ve advanced swiftly since then, so our situations are quite different.

  “I was actually going in a different direction,” Kevin nodded easily. “Can I sit?” He pointed toward the mat beside her.

  Amelia nodded carefully, shifting over in a flickering motion, her usual grace restored.

  Kevin sunk down beside her, the small mat providing just enough space so their legs weren't touching.

  “My actual point,” he continued, turning to look at her, “was that your current strength doesn’t matter that much, nor does the fact you are having trouble.”

  “It has to be horrible and frustrating,” he continued, holding up a hand, “but it’s just something you need to find a workaround for. I was blocked for much of the time since I arrived, and it felt like I would never get anywhere.”

  “But after I got past that, I started progressing quickly,” Kevin shrugged, a wry grin on his face. “So we just need to find you a way to get past this.” He paused for a moment, weighing his words, before continuing.

  “Have you tried talking to someone about it? The first doctor I spoke to helped me get started, but it wasn’t until I talked to a specialist that I really shot forward.”

  Amelia shrugged in response. Her face was blank, but the tightening of her shoulders spoke to discomfort. “It’s not a blockage, so it’s my problem to solve.”

  “Right,” Kevin sighed, nodding in commiseration with her. If there was one fundamental problem he’d found with the support in this world, it was the extreme independence of cultivator culture.

  When he’d been stuck, the sect was happy to throw all the support in the world his way. Once they’d solved that, the support had dried up in an instant, with only Dr. Vaughan’s kind advice helping him out.

  Given that she was capable of cultivation despite having trouble with it, he could see how the sect would treat Amelia’s issue the same way. Back home, there’d be psychiatrists to talk about this kind of thing, but he hadn’t yet seen any sign of that here.

  Or at least not in the sect. If that kind of support existed, it was in the civilian world where no one tried to live up to the image of a ‘perfect’ cultivator.

  “You can still ask for help improving your cultivation speed, though,” he continued, trying to stay upbeat. “You just need to pay for it with your own merit, right? If you’re going to get enough together for the inner sect, you should have plenty to spare.”

  “Cultivators are all about their special supplements, so there has to be a pill for short-term focus or something like that.” Surely, an alchemist somewhere had invented a studying pill that might help with her situation.

  Maybe. Amelia wrote, her shoulders relaxing as her face shifted into a tiny smile.

  I do not have the merit for that right now, but I could work toward it. My current plan is to start earning serious merit a month from now.

  “Great,” Kevin nodded, relaxing himself now it seemed he’d navigated through the problem. He might even have helped along the way.

  “Then, for now, let’s chat for a few more minutes before trying again.”

  When he saw her tensing back up, he raised a hand. “But this time, we’ll try for just twenty minutes,” he continued, holding up his pocket watch with the other hand.

  “Then we’ll break and talk some more. Do you think you can handle that? By my count, you lasted longer than that last time.” Kevin held his breath as he finished, watching her face for a response.

  Amelia blinked as if thrown by his words before a brilliant smile crossed her face.

  Thank you, Kevin, she wrote, holding the page up between them. That sounds wonderful. I think I could do twenty minutes right now, actually.

  With another flicker of movement, she shifted sideways so their legs touched. You can stay here if you want; I think your spot is soaked again, she continued, pointing a delicate finger at where he’d been sitting.

  “Ah… sure,” Kevin chuckled, unsure how to process her sudden change. Still, it seemed he’d cheered her up, and hopefully, his idea to split their session up would help.

  He only hoped that having her so close wouldn’t be too distracting.