Casmir walked through his home intent on changing his clothes and washing himself. He was covered from head to toe in mud and grass stains, his now scruffy and sweat ladened hair made him look destitute.
As Casmir passed by the kitchen he heard the faint chopping sounds of someone preparing food, he ignored it for now and walked passed the open door.
"Oh Casmir dear! Come in here.." An older feminine voice called out to him.
Casmir quickly turned around, he recognised this voice to be Barbara, his grandmothers, voice.
When Casmir entered the kitchen he saw Barbara and Alonso cooking together however before he could speak Barbara started reprimanding him for his appearance.
"Casmir! What have you been doing? Don't tell me you walked home like this? Are people bullying you?" Barbara said with concern in her voice as she walked over.
Much like Gloria, Barbara could be very overbearing at times however Barbara was much more understanding than her daughter.
"No, no Nanny. I've been training all day, we're training our fighting skills this week and on Friday we'll get a chance to spar with a ferocious beast.."
When Casmir mentioned fighting with a ferocious beast Barbara's eyes opened wide in fright, fortunately Casmir tampered down her worries quickly.
"Don't worry, don't worry. It's only a really weak Grade 1 ferocious beast and I'm not alone, my partners a Grade 1, advancement 5 cultivator..." Casmir quickly said.
Barbara seemed to reluctantly accept Casmir's explanation as she understood how cultivators like Casmir would be trained but she still looked slightly concerned and angry as she complained.
"Hmph, they better not put you in any danger. I'll have at them, if you get injured..."
Alonso, who was supposed to be stirring a pot of thick liquid, smirked happily as he watched Casmir talk with Barbara. He couldn't help but reminisce that this was how he used to act in front of Barbara, of course he wouldn't admit that he still did.
*Sizzle*
"Ah, crap.." Alonso said quietly as he realised he had neglected his stirring and slightly burnt something.
Barbara looked over at him questioningly but before she could find a reason to scold him, Alonso had already excused himself of any wrong doing.
"Don't worry, just a little spill over. We need to get some new saucepans, these ones are a bit too small for this.." he said in a convincing manner as if he was innocent the whole time.
His act seem to placate Barbara as she turned her attention back to Casmir.
"Anyway, I want you to invite Rose to dinner this Sunday, we haven't been able to have a nice Sunday dinner recently for a few reasons so make sure she comes." Barbara said with a smile as she thought of Rose.
"I need to get to know the mother of my grandchildren better, I can't seem to find her whenever I have free time recently."
Casmir knew that this would happen eventually, his family typically had a nice Sunday dinner together so that they could talk together. They all had various jobs and responsibilities so they often didn't have much time to spend together.
Casmir wasn't against having dinner together but he didn't know how it would go with Rose, he already knew that Elena had helped Rose avoid Barbara because of how unreasonable she could be at times.
Much like Gloria, Barbara wouldn't let you escape if she wanted to know something and as Rose was pregnant with Casmir's child, Barbara wanted to know everything about her.
Barbara and the rest of Casmir's family were of course aware that Casmir was adopted but they didn't see him any differently that their own.
"Ok, I'll invite her to dinner. Now I need to get changed so I'll be going..." Casmir said as he quickly tried to extricate himself from the room.
Just as Casmir had turned around and reached the doorway, Barbara called out with a sharp "Ah, ah, aah. One more thing Casmir..."
Casmir cautiously turned around expecting to be given an unreasonable task.
"Do you want some cookies? I made them fresh this morning?" Barbara said with an innocent smile on her face.
======
A short while later.
Rose had just finished having a shower in Casmir's bathroom. She didn't have an independent bathroom for herself so she used Casmir's whenever she liked, Casmir was completely fine with this of course.
Rose had previously been practicing her dancing and then she helped Elena out with her gardening so she wanted a quick shower.
Rose had wrapped a thick towel around herself as she left the bathroom to get changed in Casmir's bedroom, however when she entered Casmir's room from the connecting door she was surprised to find Casmir, now topless, standing before her.
"Oh Casmir, I didn't realise you were back already, I was hoping to be finished before you got home." Rose said in her usual pleasant voice.
Casmir was just about to remove his trousers but he stopped upon Rose's arrival.
"Don't worry, I'll go in the bathroom while you get changed." Casmir said unsure of whether Rose wanted some privacy to cloth herself.
Casmir grabbed the clean clothes he had placed on the bed before he started walking over to the bathroom door which Rose was stood next to.
Rose smiled at his actions, he was too polite, she didn't even need to ask for privacy, Casmir simply gave it to her freely.
"Wait a minute Casmir, why are you so dirty? Rough day at training?" Rose said, she earnestly wanted to know about his day.
Casmir happily stood with her and explained his day to her, Rose was quite interested in his training partner, Zaya, and the various facilities he mentioned. When Casmir mentioned that he was going to make a breakthrough today she insisted that he tell her about it the next day.
As their conversation neared its end, Rose stepped close to Casmir letting her natural scent drift towards him and she even loosened her towel slightly. Rose's appearance was very pure yet provocative and her wet hair only added to her appeal as she teased Casmir.
Rose's stretched her words and softened her voice in a seductive manner as she spoke "Make sure to tell me every detail.. of how your body feels.. and reacts to it..."
Casmir's young body reacted immediately to her teasing, his heartbeat sped up and his lower half started to bulge but Casmir restrained himself as he attempted to tease her back.
Casmir puffed up his chest slightly and stretched out his arm to lean on the door, he tried to focus Elena's attention on his naked muscular chest.
Casmir leaned in to Rose as he spoke slowly "Well I can tell you right now that it feels quite tight inside your abdomen.. as if something is waiting to be released.."
Casmir and Rose's bodies drifted closer as they stared at each other, neither one of them wanted to give in first as if in competition but in each of their eyes a fire was wildly burning.
In the end Casmir gave in first, he grabbed Rose's body and leaned in to give her a rough kiss. Rose giggled happily as they began to rub their bodies together.
"I'm afraid I've won Casmir..." Rose said softly.
Casmir gave her one last kiss before he let go of Rose, he had a warm smile on his face but the annoyance of losing to Rose was still obvious.
"Damn.. next time, next time.." Casmir said as he stroked Rose's face one last time, it wasn't the right time for their bodies to meld together.
"..A-Ahem.." a quiet voice said as it announced its presence at this point.
On the other side of the room, Elena was standing in the doorway connected to the hallway. Elena was slightly dirty from gardening, her face was slightly flushed for obvious reasons as her eyes shyly darted to and from Casmir and Elena's bodies.
Rose was first to react.
"Oh have you been spying on us Elena? Such a naughty girl..." Rose teased, she clearly didn't mind Elena's presence in the slightest.
"Could you close the door Elena? I want to get changed now." Rose then added.
Rose walked over to Casmir bed and using some clothes she had brought earlier she started to get changed quite openly in front of the pair.
Elena quickly closed the door to the hallway, she walked over to Casmir who was staring at Rose's naked body and pushed him into the bathroom to give Rose and themselves some privacy.
"Get a hold of yourself Casmir!" Elena said quite harshly as she herself tried to calm herself down.
Casmir's face was red and he was obviously excited by Rose but under Elena's orders he did indeed sort himself out.
"Ahem.. sorry Elena, Rose.. Rose is a bit of a handful sometimes.." Casmir said as he placed his clean set of clothes on a nearby cupboard.
Elena took a moment to collect herself, she had only come here to check if Casmir had come home with the advancement materials, she intended to help him seeing as this was his first time.
Elena didn't think that she would witness such an erotic scene of Casmir and Rose passionately kissing in a half naked embrace, it was too much for her inexperienced body.
"Yes.. she is a handful..." Elena said with misty eyes and clouded thoughts.
As Casmir looked at Elena's elegant figure, her somewhat absent and yearning countenance led him to want to immediately take her for himself.
Thankfully he did not rampantly indulge his baser instincts, he resolved himself to seduce Elena to gain her consent.
"Are you alright Elena?.. You know we are alone.. and we do both need a bath.." Casmir said slowly and suggestively.
Casmir expected Elena to promptly refuse, she was normally too shy to be intimate with someone else so close by.
"Ok.." Elena said softly.
At first Casmir was simply surprised but Elena quickly took hold of him as they began to kiss passionately, the bathroom was soon filled with steam and the sounds of two animals pinning at each other.
In the nearby room Rose giggled as she heard the pair, a tinge of jealousy could be seen on her face but a happy smile burst through, as if she enjoyed playing matchmaker for them.
======
As time passed into the evening, eventually Casmir and Elena reappeared in the household.
They both looked clean and wore fresh clothes as the made their way towards the training hall. They held each others hands as they walked with wide smiles on their faces, fully satisfied and even slightly guilty because of their previous actions.
They indeed looked like a young couple that had played around more than they should have.
As they walked Casmir asked Elena to talk to Rose about Sunday dinner, he could see that they were getting close and he was trying to give them every opportunity to open up to each other.
Elena was happy to talk to Rose about it, Elena was more familiar with Barbara so she could help Rose deal with her when the time comes.
Casmir and Elena couldn't help but cheekily laugh at Rose's misfortune and how she would deal with Barbara, they were thankful that they weren't Barbara's target as it were.
Casmir also held a small box in his spare hand, he cleared his throat and started to speak slightly more seriously as he remembered about it.
"Ahem.. So what is it like Elena.. having a breaking through I mean.." Casmir asked.
Elena was happily daydreaming as Casmir's question abruptly brought her out of her pleasant thoughts.
"Oh... umm, It's like your stomach is full.. and your body suddenly digests everything all at once.. It's quite strange." Elena said as she refocused her thoughts on Casmir's breakthrough.
When the pair arrived at the training hall, Elena instructed him to sit down and try to relax his body.
Casmir already knew what he needed to do to breakthrough but Elena went over it with him again regardless, a smile appearing on his face as he appreciated her care.
"Ok. Remember, when the purer Qi enters your body you need to let it flow into your Dantian and rest naturally at the centre of it. Don't try to control it, just feel for its position. After it has settled down you then need to force all your Qi energy towards it, the pressure will force it to condense and merge with your Dantian starting the purification process." Elena instructed.
Casmir listened to her and after a few questions, Casmir felt that he was ready to advance.
Elena sat beside Casmir preparing for any accidents, the likelihood of which were 1 in a million but she still prepared herself nonetheless.
Elena handed Casmir the Grade 1.1 Qi crystal and after a few seconds of further preparation, Casmir connected his Qi with the crystal, absorbing the Qi energy within.
Casmir felt a warm flow enter his body, almost as if a snake was worming it's way through his body. It didn't hurt of feel wrong, it simply felt odd and almost unnatural for a moment.
The warm flow gradually made it's way up Casmir's arm and down Casmir's chest, towards his Dantian. The flow of Qi energy almost seemed alive as it moved, but in fact it's movements were being controlled by the natural flow of energy through his body, it followed the blood flow until it was attracted by Casmir's Dantian.
When it neared his Dantian, the warm flow circled around it slowly before it was sucked inside suddenly, entering the strange environment of a Dantian.
One should know that the Dantian consists of two plains of energy, the solid Qi crystal structure formed and purified by a cultivator and the ocean of absorbed Qi energy that is contained inside of it.
Casmir felt the whole process of the warm flow entering his Dantian and he realised that he could intimately sense everything that happened inside of it, as if his eyes could could see inside of his Dantian.
Not everyone would be able to feel everything so keenly as Casmir, he could sense Qi much more easily and inside of his Dantian was much clearer to him. Most people would only gain such clarity after advancing multiple times.
Soon enough, Casmir felt the warm flow rest at the centre of his Dantian as if this place was its home. Sensing this, Casmir felt it was time to begin the next step, compressing his Qi together.
Casmir urged the Qi spread throughout his body to return to his Dantian slowly, Casmir didn't want to do things too quickly because he wanted to observe and understand the process of purifying his Dantian.
Casmir's Dantian began to feel pressured, the blob of pure Qi energy inside of him started to reform into a perfectly circular ball under the pressure, this still wasn't enough though as the ball of Qi energy still remained in a water like state.
After a few seconds, more and more Qi energy began to converge around Casmir's Dantian, the pressure began to build and the ball of pure Qi energy started to flash with light.
This meant that the QI energy was started to converge and solidify.
At this point Casmir was starting to sweat, controlling his QI energy like this wasn't very easy but Casmir could still hold on.
Inside of his Dantian the ball of energy started flashing rapidly until it gave off a continuous light, in the other plane of crystallised lower Grade Qi energy a small spire seemed to stretch out of the crystal forming a hand that reach towards this light.
Suddenly Casmir heard a sharp clapping noise inside of him, his senses felt as if they had been struck by lightning.
As the crystal spire stretched closer to the ball of light, the ball of light suddenly struck down upon it like lightning. As it did so, the crystal spire was overloaded with Qi energy and sharply collapsed down into the crystal condensing into a purer Grade of Qi crystal, Grade 1.1.
However the energy could only transform a small amount of Casmir's Dantian to this higher grade, roughly one tenth, it was up to Casmir to cultivate and fuel his Dantian's transformation with more Qi grade 1.1 energy to completely transform it.
Once Casmir had fully converted his Dantian into Grade 1.1 Qi energy, Casmir could restart this process with Grade 1.2 Qi energy.
"Aaahh... that felt good..." Casmir groaned as the energy inside his Dantian suddenly collapsed into itself and then resettled.
It did indeed feel as if ones full stomach was suddenly emptied.
Elena who was watching Casmir closer the whole time, smiled as she observed Casmir with her senses and congratulated Casmir.
"Congratulations Casmir, you're a Grade 1 advancement 1 cultivator now.." She whispered toward Casmir as he tried to control the flow of Qi energy in his body.