After having robbed the kidnappers, Aiden proceeded to walk back the way he had come from. It was already nearing evening and he needed a place to stay. 

Walking around he searched for any wooden sign post that read "inn". Matilda had told him that travellers used these places to stay when they came to new towns.

After wandering for an hour, just when it was getting dark, a girl in a blue skirt with long white socks and a bow on her head, called out to him.

“Hey there, you look like a new face here? Have you found an inn to check into yet??”

Taking a proper look at her Aiden realised she was a bit taller and looked older than him.

“Um no I haven’t found a suitable place yet.”, replied Aiden.

“Well then you should be glad you found me, the owner of the Bertis Inn. We have rooms at a cheap price or…….”, she snuck a peak at the pouch Aiden was carrying in hand, “....some better ones for the more privileged customer.”

“You stand out too much with the pouch in hand.”, pointed out Denzel.

“Thank you for mentioning the obvious.”, Aiden spoke in his mind as he looked up at the signboard behind the girl. It was a wooden one that showed signs of weathering, with ‘Bertis’ carved into it in beautiful cursive.

“I’ll take a normal room, thank you miss.”, Aiden smiled and said.

“Come right in”, she beamed at him with glowing eyes and led him into the inn.

The insides of the inn were warm and cosy. The reception counter happened to be on the left, while the room extended a few feet to the right to accommodate a few tables for dining too. The fireplace at the right end of the room kept it well illuminated and warm as the two glass windows opposite the entrance, gave a glimpse of the darkening day. Overall it was an extremely comfortable place by Aiden’s standards.

“It sure does look pretty deserted doesn’t it?”, Denzel commented.

“It does?”, Aiden asked confused.

“Sigh, you country bumpkin. An inn at this time of the year is supposed to be bustling with customers.”

Before Aiden could reply, the lady had gone behind and below the counter and started looking through keys while she spoke out loud, “So you really want a normal room?”

“Yep”, Aiden replied.

“And how many nights do you plan on staying?”

“Uh…I think 3 nights miss.”

“That’ll be 30 silvers*”, she finally said from under the counter.

Silence………..

She came up from under the counter, “What? Don’t tell me you have only bronze coins in that pouch.”, her voice was sceptical.

“Ah no, that’s not the case…but….”, Aiden scratched his neck in embarrassment.

“But what? Spit it out kid.”, at this point, the inn keeper had crossed her arms.

“Well the fact is that I only have …uh……gold coins.”, Aiden said sheepishly.

Awkward silence…………

“Hahaha. Nice try kid.”, she laughed out loud then looked at Aiden. His expression was still sheepish with no sign of changing.

She composed herself a bit and started speaking seriously.

“You really….? No wait, first of all, what’s a kid of ten doi…..”

“TWELVE!”, Aiden corrected midway.

“Fine twelve. What’s a kid of your age doing, walking around with so many gold coins in town. You didn’t rob someone did you?”

“Of course not!”, Aiden replied hurriedly.

“Still, it’s a wonder you didn’t get ransacked, walking around with jingle-bell pockets in broad daylight. Are you a rich kid who decided to just run away from home or something?”

“My situation is different miss…..I’d rather not say.”

She looked deep into Aiden’s eyes, as if looking for secrets to prod into.

“Well it matters little to me what you are doing or where you got the money.”, she sighed, “Give me a gold coin, I’ll return you 70 silvers.”

Aiden reached into his pouch and handed over a gold coin. She took it and counted silvers before reaching out to hand them to Aiden.

“Here you go. Here are your 70 sil…….”, suddenly Aiden’s stomach growled. She pulled her hand back.

“I’ll make that 60 and throw in a meal then”, she said, handing him 60 silvers.

Aiden took the coins, “Thank you miss.”

“Just call me Berta. Take a seat, I’ll bring some food around.”, she said before turning to go through the door behind her.

“Right, what’s your name kid?”, she asked turning one last time.

“Oh, it’s Aiden, mi….Berta.”, He corrected himself.

“Well, sit tight Aiden. I’ll be right back with a meal.”

“Since we have time and quite conveniently, you aren’t getting kidnapped, I’ll explain the innate meridian stage to you.”, Denzel spoke lazily.

Aiden nodded, closing his eyes so that he could pay attention.

“This stage is called so because of how we actively try to feel and properly gain an understanding of our meridian network. As I had explained, meridians are used as efficient passageways for mana to flow through. But despite having them, an ordinary foundation 1-dan cultivator would only be able to sense the presence of some of the wider and more used ones. But it’ll still be like pouring water from a bucket into a thin pipe. Most of it would fall outside and be wasted.

Unless you narrow down the stream of mana flow and restrict it to your meridian pathways, you’ll be wasting as much as 70 percent of the mana you use. Thus in the innate meridian stage, we learn to guide our mana through proper meridian pathways and also learn to be sensitive to the finer meridians that supply mana to very small muscles. These are so thin that it is very easy to miss them. But these end up being the deciding factor between a winner and a loser in a fight.

Because finer control over these, means finer control over your body, more precise movements, minimal wasted moves, and so on”

Aiden asked, “So how do we gauge if one has been able to appropriately gain enough control over our mana?”

“You basically try to constrict flow of mana such that it travels thinly and can’t affect any surrounding muscles or organs. For primary mastery, you must practise sending mana to your individual muscles on your arms, chest, legs and torso. And for intermediate mastery you must be able to imbue just your facial muscles and organs with mana When you can send mana to just specifically your individual finger muscles without them leaking out to the other fingers, it’ll indicate that you’ve achieved a fine degree of control over your mana and meridian usage and have therefore reached consummation.”

“That sounds simple enough.”, said Aiden perking up.

“Sure it SOUNDS simple.”, said Denzel sceptically, “Now you should spend the night revising these lessons and trying to reach intermediate stage of innate meridian.”

“But before that, absorb mana from the atmosphere and refill your core. You also have to fill it up to a hundred percent this time.”

“Right”, Aiden said.

Just as Denzel’s lecture came to an end, Berta arrived with food in hand. It was some piping hot stew with a few loaves of bread.

Aiden’s mouth started to water at the sight of the food. He had only ever seen and smelt fresh stew back at the Jefferson’s ; never eaten.

“Dig in”, Berta said smiling as she sat down at the other end of the table, “And don’t complain about the taste. I am infamous in town for being a horrible cook.”

Aiden wordlessly dove into the food relishing the taste of fresh stew with bread. For him, having only the bland meals from his previous lifestyle to compare to, this could be said to be a blessing for him. The tender fat of the meat melted on his tongue as the piping hot broth filled his mouth with explosions of spices. When he dipped the bread into the broth, the sweet aftertaste of the bread, with the spicy meaty juices were basically transporting him to paradise.

“ ‘ish  is bhery delishis Ber ta. Thank youb soo moch.”, he said with his mouth full of stew.

Berta eyed him suspiciously, “You are one strange kid you know? Others in the village would rather not try my cooking but you actually love it. I can even see from your face that you aren’t joking.”

She watched the stew as it disappeared at a visible pace into Aiden’s stomach.

He finished the entire meal in just 5 minutes. “Phew, this was the most satisfying thing I’ve done all day.”, said Aiden, slumping back into the chair.

“Well let me clear the table, I’ll bring you the keys to your room.”, said Berta as she stood up and collected the dishes.

Aiden thanked her and waited at the table.

Suddenly, he felt a shiver go down his spine. Since he had started cultivating, he had been getting more and more sensitive to changes in his environment. He felt someone’s presence but he couldn’t get a hold of who or where it was coming from. “Denzel do you sense som…….” 

WHOOSH!

Suddenly the fireplace that was lit up, flickered and went out. The room was now dark except for the candle burning at the reception counter. An eerie distorted voice moaned as an ethereal figure materialised in the middle of the room, just in front of the fireplace. It was like greyish fog had gathered together to take the shape of a human being. 

However he lacked legs, because from below the torso, his body had narrowed into just a thin trail of black smoke.

As his eyes, seemingly locked onto Aiden’s, he slowly raised his hands. His fingers slowly bent until only his index finger was straight……….and this finger, happened to be pointing straight at Aiden.

“YYooouuuuuu…….”, it spoke with a very slow and hoarse voice, as if breathing the words out, one by one like a very loud distorted whisper. 

“...........yyooouuu shhoouuld nooot be allliiiiiiive.”

Just then Berta came rushing in, “Oh no, he’s here again.”

“What IS THAT?!!”, Aiden asked, not taking his eyes off the spirit.

“That”, her voice sounded filled with bitterness, “is the reason why we don’t have customers.”