Theo's return to his own quarters made him feel… weird.
On one hand, he managed to accomplish an insane lot in just the hour or so it took him to leave his alcove, confront the sect's patriarch, and then set up the whole plan for the nearest future.
And now that things were set in motion, it was finally the time for him to step back and do the one thing that, sooner or later, he would have to do.
'Let's check just how powerful I really am!'
With this new task already taking over his focus, Theo hardly paid any attention to the sights all around him.
To Theo, all those buildings, all the parts of the sect where nature seamlessly merged with the human architecture? They were nothing new. Sure, they were all a wonder for his old self, but… were they really?
'This all feels… weird,' Theo bit down on his lips, confused by his own feelings on the matter.
On one hand, he was one and the same man. On the other hand, though, with different upbringing, bodily constitution, and experiences, could he really consider both versions of himself to be one and the same?
What if that wasn't really the case? Then… how was he supposed to feel about this whole merger, one that took two extremely different people, different personalities, different memories, and just made them one?
"It's not something I have the energy, will, or time to consider," Theo ultimately muttered as he reached the doorstep of his own, surprisingly humble abode.
As a royal hostage at the sect, even one that lacked a rank beyond his royal status, he could expect… no, he could demand much better accommodations.
And yet, he never did. A decision initially born from his desire not to stand out too much. Later on, as Theo came to sympathize with Narmidor and the monetary plight of his domain, better living conditions became as much of a taboo for him as they already were for everyone else in the marquis's domain.
His subjects all watched their patriarch burn himself out for years for their sake. And now that he had no more of himself to give… how could they be so shameless to just turn around and ask for more and more, knowing full well his domain simply couldn't provide them with anything better than what they already had?
Practically speaking, Theo's place was… small, pitiful, and, at most, maintained well enough to cover for all its other drawbacks. Yet, as he stood before its doors?
"Not so bad," Theo muttered as he walked in, his perception a mix of his old and new selves.
Theo's abode was but one of the many relatively open buildings set in the outer ring of the sect, far enough from its center not to be too busy while still connected well enough not to turn a daily commute to the facilities a massive drag.
For the current Theo, however, it was both perfect and bare. Perfect because it was far enough away from any other buildings not to be accidentally disturbed… and bare due to lack of any of the accommodations old Theo had been used to.
'Honestly…' Theo shook his head over his own innate entitlement. 'I promised to myself to be happy even if I would start again as a street rat living in a gutter, so a place like this?' he looked around the house's insides, 'a place like this is more of a dream come true than an abode too humble for me to enjoy!'
Out of all the rooms of Theo's home that looked like a lake-side vacation house only a few could afford back in his old life, one room was much more important than the others. Not the kitchen, not the living room with the easy access to his private garden where decorative plants accompanied useful herbs, not even his bedroom.
No, the one place around which the entire house was built was the training hall located right in the middle of the whole thing, with nothing but soft floor, bare walls, and a perfectly flat roof.
A room that Theo quickly found himself in before sitting in its middle and taking a few minutes to calm his breath and relax.
'Right now, I have two separate sets of memories… and in the same way, two separate systems of power,' Theo thought as he finally started to relax, his body naturally assuming the same position he found himself cultivating in the very moment he awoke to the memories of his other self.
And then, with a deep breath, Theo started to cultivate.
Not the way he did back on that rock in the alcove, in a place much better designed for effective cultivation than this bare, empty room.
No.
He started to cultivate in the way an absolute novice would, patiently retracting the steps he took in his past to reach the realm of cultivation he was at right now.
First came the simplest part of it, one that wasn't all that much different from how all the mages old Theo knew would train their mana control. A body refining realm, where Theo would slowly absorb the mana through his mana-gate… or, as the locals would call it, infuse his body with qi.
Despite its initial similarities, however, as Theo immersed himself in the process, he quickly started to recognize the small differences that set the two techniques apart.
A mage would only absorb as much mana as his mana-sea would allow. Then, a novice would expel the mana out of their internal storage before repeating the process again, again, and then, for a little twist, again.
More advanced mages with some degree of proper control of their mana would switch to a harder technique, where they would both absorb and expel the mana at the same time, trying to balance the scales of the process to keep it perfectly constant, turning it into something as natural for them as breathing.
Theo's cultivation, however, while relying on absorbing the mana through his mana-gate to feed into his mana-sea… actually encouraged him to keep doing so, not until he reached—no, went beyond—his inborn limits.
Contrary to the mages' training regime old Theo knew, the actual process of cultivation would only start once he absorbed more mana than his mana-sea was able to hold, forcing it to spill into his physical flesh, conditioning it to accept mana the same way his mana-sea would.
All of that, however, was just the very first step of the cultivation process, finally making it clear just why such a novel technique would never reach old Theo's ears.
In a world extremely set in the belief that one's mana-gate and mana-sea were decided at birth and impossible to change, no one would be dumb, brave… or both dumb and brave enough to ignore this common sense and do something that went so clearly against it!
And even if someone actually did it, they would never be able to continue doing so for long enough to see the fruits of their labor, not in the world changed by the emergence of the magic industry that sapped most of the mana out of the air, forcing all the mana users to transition to using mana batteries—here called spirit stones—instead.
Doing so would simply cost a fortune, and rarely would those with that kind of money be willing to spend it on such a random, unproven, and outright desperate method!
"Haaah…"
With Theo's attention inherently divided by his unorthodox circumstances, it took him quite a while to complete what should be no more than a warm-up for his newer self, a part of the process he would formerly complete without much thought.
Yet, as the minutes passed, Theo couldn't help but get more and more immersed in the process. He barely noticed the passage of time as he reached the point beyond body refinement.
A stage of Qi gathering, where rather than just allowing the mana to spill into his body to condition it for the mana's presence, Theo actively soaked in the mana in the air while doing his best to infuse it into his flesh.
The first realm that locals would consider to be an actual cultivation.