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Barrett wasn’t planning to leave immediately just because Crenthor didn’t happen to have a solution for him. There was still plenty of reason to stay around him and Caprica for some time, beyond just wanting to meet them again. For one thing, Nilima seemed as if she had something she wanted to ask. When Barrett brought it up, it took her several minutes to come up with the words, or at least choose what to ask.
“How do you do that?”
“What, specifically?” Barrett found himself doing many things, walking, breathing, tempering his body small bits at a time as he moved around. “Is this a Pure Body Tempering question? You interested in trying?”
“No. Maybe.” Nilima shook her head, “But that other thing. The cultivation changing thing.”
“You mean what Caprica was doing? Soul Binding?” Barrett shrugged, “Don’t know. Shouldn’t that be a question for her?”
“… can you ask?” Nilima folded her arms awkwardly.
“Aren’t you usually so confident? Why can’t you do it yourself?”
“… I never had to ask anyone to teach me anything. Mistress Joshi used to just teach me what she thought was important. Later I just figured everything else out on my own.”
Barrett shook his head, “I’m sure you’ve asked before, but if not, now’s a good time to do so. You can ask either Crenthor or Caprica to teach you.”
“That’s easier then. Maybe I’ll talk to Crenthor,” Nilima nodded.
“Where did your hesitation go? Is it something about Caprica?”
“…No,” Nilima said unconvincingly.
“Is that so,” Barrett nodded. “Well, Crenthor might be the better option to begin with anyway. He might have some ideas more suited for you. As for me…” Barrett tilted his head, “I’ll figure something out. Caprica wanted to try out some Pure Body Tempering, so I might as well start with that.”
—–
Strictly speaking, Pure Body Temperers didn’t have to forgo the use of energy or magic. However, when things got difficult it was very easy to rely on other sources to help accomplish what you were trying to do with Pure Body Tempering… and thus never learn how to do it properly. When it came time to actually perform, stamina usage would be inefficient and sluggish. Then there were specific things like vitality pears which decayed rapidly in the presence of magic or energy, though those were more of an exception.
Caprica had secured an indoor training area- which was more or less just a room, because cultivators didn’t need more than open space in most cases that didn’t involve sparring. Barrett was able to provide various weights, but they didn’t need them yet. First they had to start with the very basics.
“Your best areas are currently soul magic and cutting energy, right?” Barrett stroked his chin as he considered how to begin. “It’s not so easy to correlate any of those with Pure Body Tempering, but we can try a few things. It might be easier or harder for you to try something less connected to your body. Let’s try a fingernail.” Barrett pulled out a few things, a sheet of parchment, some leftover cloth from destroyed outfits, and a steel plate that was once part of some armor. “Why don’t we try this. Stab them all with a nail- whichever one feels best to you.”
Caprica easily followed instructions, piercing through the paper easily- but not really cutting it. Instead, it was just that her body was strong enough to provide the force to break through as it rested against the floorboards. Caprica’s nails weren’t long, so she barely left an impression on the cloth, and of course no effect on the metal plate. Caprica looked to Barrett questioningly.
“You could cut them all easily with a bit of cutting energy, right?” Barrett held up a finger lengthening the nail on it slightly, “You understand sharpness, so we’ll start with that.” Barrett held up the paper and placed it above his finger- such that his nail was perpendicular to the center of the bottom of the paper. Then he let go, and the paper split itself in half lengthwise just from the force of gravity. Of course, that only worked because his fingernail was incredibly sharp. The same happened with the cloth and even the steel plate. “Sharpness.” Barrett flicked his hand, “A good place to start, right? I’m sure you’re quite capable of observing your nail to see if you have any effect. Watch me closely a few times. Then use that feeling of sharpness to try to do something yourself.”
Barrett held out his finger, lengthening the nail once more. However, more fingernail didn’t come from nowhere. While he could stretch it somewhat, what it really needed was to draw from elsewhere. For the current example it was perfect, because he could decrease the thickness of his nail to lengthen it, thus making the sharpness almost automatic. Of course, thinness brought with it weakness. That was best made up for with more ephemeral durability from somewhere else, but getting any result was what they wanted.
Fortunately, Caprica had much experience with cultivation. While Pure Body Tempering was a different sort of thing, the most basic levels were quite easy for a master to understand. If Caprica had only dealt in one area, the focus might have made it more difficult… but upon taking up Soul Binding she had branched out into different pathways. And, at the current moment, she had no feeling of energy or magic to throw her off. After just an hour, she succeeded. One might consider shaving off a tiny portion of nail at barely anything at all, but the first step of Pure Body Tempering- doing anything with it at all- was the hardest. Barrett was glad he’d chosen fingernails though. “Umm… it wasn’t supposed to fall off.” Caprica pursed her lips. “But it is sharper now, I guess.” She traced her finger along the paper, and vaguely made a real cut on it. The cloth snagged on her nail and tore off a bit more. “Did you need to fortify your fingernail to cut steel?”
“In general? It’s necessary,” Barrett nodded, “However, my body automatically produces more durable fingernails, so for just this it wasn’t necessary. Well, not that it often matters much.” Barrett thought for a few moments, “I’m not sure if this will help, but when you change cultivations… how does that work? I have a vague recollection of Grandmaster Quidel doing it, but I’m not sure it’s quite the same. Your energy and magic seem to disappear… but you don’t have to build them up again.”
“It’s not like they actually go away.” Caprica gestured with her hands, “It’s sort of like putting them in a drawer. You can’t sense it because it’s muted, and there’s no intention behind it. And…” Caprica suddenly emanated an entirely different aura, “You can display everything at once. At least, if it’s all… you. I imagine if you are trying to incorporate other’s souls, you can only have a few pieces under control at once. There’s a limit for me as well, but that’s more down to multitasking than fighting back against myself.” Caprica went back to feeling like she only trained her body… though Barrett did have the vaguest sense of the rest resting beneath the surface. “So, what’s next?”
—–
Barrett spent much of his time teaching Caprica, but he still reserved time for himself. Nilima was off training on her own- or potentially learning from Crenthor, though she hadn’t really said anything about her progress in that direction.
Training his body was second nature to him now. Completing destructions as necessary, building up his strength and toughness, and practicing with his body that was outside his body, such as the living metal and stone pits. As it turned out, moving something like it was your own body still required practice. After all, just moving his own body took work to get right sometimes. That was especially true of extra limbs, though he had long gotten used to it.
Beyond that, Barrett trained his magic by making or fortifying talismans. It was frustrating when he messed up there more than anywhere else, because his mistakes cost more. It wasn’t just that he made fewer mistakes in body tempering, but also that any damage he caused to himself healed on its own and was rarely an actual drawback. When he shattered a piece of jade by putting more magic power than it could hold… it cost money and pride. He was supposed to be a master, but he kept failing such basic estimations. To be fair, it wasn’t that expensive, but Barrett didn’t spend much of his time doing missions to make money either. If he was higher rank and had shattered some more expensive things, like adamantine… it was harder to repair. One might just think that the adamantine could be reforged, but it was never the same at holding the magic required for talismans afterwards. Something about the structure stayed broken. Maybe he could fix it if he knew more, but then he wouldn’t break it to begin with.
Barrett thought back to the battles in Stredo. He hadn’t really done it consciously, but he’d grabbed curses and thrown them back at the enemies. As long as he was fighting only a small number of enemies, active protection like that was probably sufficient, but pre-prepared talismans could help himself and others. It was unfortunate that even with his training in earth magic he only had so much understanding of a carved piece of jade. He couldn’t sense everything about it, unlike his own body. Maybe at his current point, talismans were useless for himself. WIth his ability to touch souls, he could just attack anything that the talismans would be relevant for- and trying to use them against non-soul-related attacks was just a complete waste of his effort when everyone could easily defend against those. Still, if only he could carve talisman markings directly on his body and fill them with magic. Then he would know exactly what it could stand up to- which would be a lot- and increase efficiency.
Sadly, he couldn’t. At least, Barrett wasn’t interested in mutilating his body and then forcing it to not heal so it did just what he needed. But what if… could he do it with a tattoo? Carvings were generally more durable, so they were used to prevent the talisman failing before it ran out of power. Even if he couldn’t tattoo his own body… he could carve up a part of it without it being an issue. Though it was more correct to say that he would do that to living metal. He would have to avoid reforming that part during battle, but there were many sections he avoided reforming during battle… and if the spot took a direct hit, a normal talisman would be useless anyway. Barrett wasn’t sure if he might be able to permanently cause damage to his body or the living metal, so he chose an easier sacrifice instead. One of the stone pits. While he would still regret losing it if things went wrong… he could afford it.