My Path

Ashton looked with glazed eyes at Belross before speaking "Well what is it?"

Belross looked down at the book in his hands, then at Ashton with worry in his eyes. "Being cursed has its benefits but also negatives. As I've realized after reading some of this book and the memoir of the first werewolf.

"He couldn't use cultivation techniques of other beast souls who weren't wolves. After creating more beast soul cultivators, the disciples had to adopt new cultivation techniques from him, since they were not compatible with their beast souls.

"Thus these techniques will not work for you. We are going to need to reverse these, and find a new path for you. That will take time."

Ashton's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped at these words. Quickly losing his temper. "You mean I have to forge a whole cultivation path with just scraps?"

His voice reached a crescendo as he finished his statement.

Belross shook his head. "These are much better than just scraps. The royal technique is on par with techniques used by some of the most powerful cultivators.

"This is even stronger than the one I follow and taught all my students."

Belross had an incredulous expression in honest shock.

"From what I can tell the royal technique is very close to the original. In two or three weeks I should be able to figure it out.

"In the meantime get comfortable here. Work your body. Study some spells and increase your intelligence, so when you unlock spells you can use them easily.

"Spar with the other first step students, and practice your skills.

The master then poured Ashton a cup of tea, which Ashton accepted.

"Since you have little to no knowledge of cultivation I'll explain the basics.

"In order to cultivate, we pull in soul energy to purify our bodies and minds.

"This is how you will advance to the second stage."

Belross took a short breath, then a sip of tea and continued.

"Now you don't have a method for pulling in beast soul power so you will have to wait on this.

"There are nine steps in cultivation and the path to advancing is generally the same. Pull as much energy into yourself as possible.

"Fill your soul nexus to the max and create pathways throughout your blood vessels to your entire body. Then you need to soak the power outward to your bone, muscle and skin."

Ashton looked absolutely dejected. "So I'm useless until we can figure this out?"

Belross firmly shook his head. "No my boy quite the opposite, you have just awoken your beast soul.

"If anything it's for the best that you can't cultivate right this second.

"Your body still needs to adjust to being merged with a beast soul."

Belross looked upon Ashton with a gentle smile and continued.

"While that is happening you need to increase your raw stats as much as possible through exercising both body and mind. For the best cultivation you need to focus on both your soul and your body.

"This is the key to being truly powerful in this world, and as a beast your physical stats far outpace your mental stats so you have to work extra hard in that regard."

Ashton shook his head in disappointment before slowly standing up. "Okay I'll be patient I couldn't cultivate for seventeen years, a few more weeks isn't a big deal."

Belross looked at Ashton with kindness. "That's my boy. Now Bella will take you to your room. If you don't mind leaving this book and the items with me.

"I'll get back to you as soon as possible with results. Then we can explore and study together further."

"Yes master, I'll head out now. Do you know where Bella is?"

With a flick of his wrist the doors opened and Bella practically fell into the room. Painfully obvious, she was trying to listen in on their conversation

"Worry not my boy. Bella could hear nothing past the doors."

"Not fair master, I wanted to hear the juicy secrets the wolf boy has!"

Bella spoke while stomping her foot down.

"If you want my secrets maybe just ask me questions, then I'll decide if I wanna share them or not."

Ashton spoke to her as he stuck out his tongue in a playful manner.

"Whatever wolf boy."

Bella stuck her tongue out right back at Ashton

"Alright you two, enough. Bella, show him to a room, and the bathroom for a cleaning. He smells awful." To punctuate his point he covered his nose and moved his hand in front of his face while chuckling.

Ashton appeared embarrassed as the master poked fun at him. "Whatever, Bella please show the way. Oh master do I get a set of robes like the other kids?"

Belross laughed. "Of course you're now a member of my Hidden Dark Flame Sect."

Ashton smiled. 'Maybe this will be my new home.'

Bella grabbed Ashton's hand and began showing him around the building. "Aside from the master's office and his private quarters, you're free to roam anywhere you want.

"Each of us kids have our own rooms with locks. So if somebody doesn't want to be bothered, you obviously couldn't just enter their room.

"These are the bathrooms here they are separated by male and female. I don't need to warn you not to enter the girls bath as somebody will beat your ass.

"Probably me if I'm around."

Ashton nodded "I'm not an animal, I mind others' privacy. Besides, who would want to peek on you?"

Bella stopped dead in her tracks, turned and with a disturbing smile, she said.

"You mean you wouldn't want to see me naked?"

Ashton froze. That smile made him feel uneasy. He knew he had to choose his next words very carefully. "Bella you are very pretty, but from your warning, peeking on you would be a death wish."

Ashton felt the sweat mounting on his forehead as he waited for her response.

"Oh? But you don't want to see me naked? You know we're both adults It's only natural you would, or maybe girls are just not your speed?"

Ashton looked at her with confusion. "What are you trying to say? Of course I'm into girls. I'm just not into bratty ones who force awkward situations."

Bella stood still for some time before her face turned bright red. She walked off with a humph and continued to lead him to his room.

Rooms lined the sides of the hallway, stretching as far as the very end of the hall. Simple wooden doors with numbers signifying ownership was all he could see in this long stretch of hallway. The walls were a lilac color, and adorned in various writings of good deeds and other nonsense.

Arriving in front of a door marked 46 Bella opened the door, walked in, and handed Ash a key to the room. "Keep this with you wherever you go, and don't lose it."

Bella spoke quickly, seemingly trying to run away from the situation. Ashton sensing her discomfort took the key and waved her off.

Walking into his new room he found it to be as large as the entirety of his old wooden cottage. Thinking of his old home and life, Ashton sat down on the bed after closing the door and curled up on the bed preparing to take somewhat of a nap.

Ashton found himself back in the forest. Confused, he looked around, his eyes were filled with horror as he was forced to watch his father's heart get ripped out from him.

Grant's wolfish grin suddenly appeared in front of Ash's face. A maddening cackle roused from Grant's throat as he ate his father's heart right in front of Ashton.

Feelings of dread and horror filled Ash as he watched Grant's form grow larger and larger until he stood well over twelve feet tall. Grant's large maw opened up and closed down on Ashton.

Ashton jumped up with a start as his screams filled the room. Ash noticed he was only having a nightmare as he felt he was drenched in sweat.

*Knock knock knock*

A soft knock was heard at the door. Ash cleaned himself up as best as he could before opening the door.

In front of Ash was another teenager, a boy about a foot shorter than himself.

"Hello, I heard you cry out in your sleep. It's okay most of us have similar issues after coming here. Being safe allows our minds to process whatever awful things happened to us.

"Anyway what I'm trying to say is you don't need to be embarrassed."

While Ashton was listening to the boy he noticed the boy's shaggy brown hair, Light green eyes and the soft smile he had. "Anyway my name is Kayman, I'm your neighbor, and I'm on my first step!"

Ashton smiled "My name is Ashton, but you can call me Ash. I'm also on my first step."

Kayman's eyes widened "You're already on the first step? Didn't you just arrive here?"

Ash shifted around awkwardly before saying "Yeah I'm not sure how long I slept for, but I arrived today."

"So you already started down your path before coming here? Wow, something real bad must have happened if you're here now." Kayman spoke plainly before realizing what he said was insensitive. Kayman went to open his mouth to speak again but Ash cut him off

"Don't worry about it Kayman I only got this far as of yesterday, I'm a beast soul cultivator."

"Oooooh that makes more sense. Okay well, still, I'm sorry for speaking rudely. Hey I know! To make it even, how about we spar?"