" You saved my life today," he said. Not the version he’d said before, the relieved merchant version. This one was quieter. Deliberate. "I want you to know I understand that."
Kael said nothing just gave a straight face.
Dorin reached into his coat and produced a leather purse. He held it out. "Twenty silver. Agreed rate. Plus.." he added a second, smaller purse on top of the first, "ten more. For the rest of it."
Kael took both without comment.
Thirty silver. Back in Valdris he was running errands for four copper a job, counting coins before bed to see if he could afford to eat the next day. Thirty silver in one escort run was the kind of number that didn’t feel real until it was sitting in his hand.
Mira had given him that. Walked up to his door with a rolled quest notice and changed the shape of his situation in one conversation.
The least he could do was walk into a dojo and try to get her out of it but sadly it amounted to shit.
"Where will you go?" Dorin said.
"Back toward Valdris," Kael replied.
"Eventually."
Dorin nodded slowly. He looked at Mira’s spear across Kael’s back, opened his mouth, closed it, and decided against whatever he’d been going to say.
"If you’re ever on the Crestfall road again," he said instead, "look for me. I owe you something special."
He turned and led his horse toward the storage facility.
Kael stood in the middle of the relay station and looked around.
The cultivator outpost had lights on inside.
The notice board outside it was half covered in quest papers, most of them Bronze Realm minimum. A small training ground was visible through the outpost’s side gate — basic, just packed earth and wooden posts, but there.
He looked at the thirty silver in his hand.
Most money he’d had since arriving in this world.
’Two months,’ he thought. ’Sixty days. A Gold Realm sect master’s chosen fighter at the end of it.’
He went inside to find a room.
The inn had six rooms on the upper floor and a common area below that smelled of woodsmoke and whatever was making that smell from the kitchen. Kael took the cheapest room — five silver, same as Valdris dropped his pack on the narrow bed, and sat down.
He looked at the ring.
"I need your help," he said.
A pause. Long enough that he thought she wasn’t going to respond.
"I know," Seradhiel said. Something in her voice that wasn’t quite satisfaction and wasn’t quite the contempt she usually reached for. Something in between that she didn’t bother naming. "Two months. Sixty days. I will tell you what needs to happen in that time and I would prefer you not interrupt me until I am finished."
"I wasn’t planning to," Kael said.
"Good," she said. "Because you are not going to like some of it."
"Go ahead," Kael said.
"You are currently at Iron Realm with one Essence pathway partially developed and one branch unlocked. You have one technique at beginner proficiency and a Seedling technique you can hold for five seconds." A pause. "To have any realistic chance against a Gold Realm sect master’s chosen fighter — who will be at minimum Silver Realm, more likely peak Silver — you need to reach Bronze Realm before the two months are up. Ideally mid Bronze."
Kael said nothing.
"Bronze Realm requires full development of your primary pathway and the opening of three additional branches minimum.
Your Void composition means your pathway develops denser than standard slower to open but more powerful when it does. The passive draw from the seal accelerates this but not enough on its own." Her voice was precise, unhurried, the voice of someone who had assessed thousands of cultivators and found the process unremarkable. "You need resources. Consistent daily cultivation.
Combat experience — your Void composition develops faster under pressure than under stillness. And you need techniques. The Azura Burst Flame at beginner proficiency will not be enough.
You need at least two more Iron Realm techniques brought to intermediate level and you need to begin work on your first Bronze Realm technique before the fight."
"How long does that normally take?" Kael said.
"For an average cultivator with resources and a master? One to two years for Bronze Realm. Three to five for the technique work."
"And for me in sixty days."
"Possible," she said. "Not comfortable. Not safe. But it is possible. Your Void composition, the passive draw, the combat pressure of what is coming — these things compound.
I have seen Void cultivators develop at rates that should not be physically achievable." A pause. "I have also seen them burn their pathways trying to force it."
"What’s the difference between the ones who made it and the ones who didn’t?"
The ring was quiet for a moment.
"The ones who burned out pushed," she said. "The ones who made it led. The same distinction I showed you on your first night with the Compression Point."
Kael looked at his right palm. Opened it. Closed it.
"Week by week," he said. "What does it look like."
"Weeks one and two — pathway density. Pure cultivation, every night, push the thread as far as it will go without forcing it.
Use the resources you have. The thirty silver buys you enough Iron Realm cultivation material for two weeks of serious work." She continued without pausing. "Weeks three and four technique development. Azura Burst Flame from beginner to intermediate. Begin work on a second Iron Realm technique. I will teach you one from my era that the primers of this world have never seen."
"What technique?"
"Void Compression Strike," she said.
"What you have been doing with the Compression Point but weaponized. You compress Void Essence into a single point and release it as a directed impact rather than holding it. At Iron Realm it hits with the force of a mid-Bronze technique because of your composition and the passive draw." A beat. "It will be your primary combat technique for the fight."
He turned and looked at Kael properly for the first time since the treeline.
"Weeks five and six," Kael said.
"Combat experience. The outpost here will have escort quests, Gate clearance assignments, anything that puts you in live combat. You fight everything you can access at your level. Void composition develops fastest under real pressure." Her voice shifted slightly. "Weeks seven and eight — threshold work. Pushing toward Bronze Realm. This is where it either happens or it doesn’t. I will guide the pathway work directly."
"And if I don’t reach Bronze in time?"
"Then you fight at peak Iron Realm with the best techniques available to you and you use every other advantage you have."