Paul made sure that the fire would not accidentally spread by surrounding it with rocks and after that he was ready to restart his cultivation.
This time around however he would cultivate both Qi and Mana as his physique allowed him to use both powers.
It came with a price as his cultivation would be slower than the other people but that was also negated by his physique.
He opened his status window and saw some familiar information.
His physique was the same as last time: the All absorbing physique .
It gave him the power to wield both mana and Qi and also allowed him to absorb all kinds of powers.
The Qi cultivation was quite straightforward as all he needed to do was absorb the Qi around him and convert it to his own power.
Mana cultivation was mostly the same but the uses were much more flexible than with the Qi as mana was transformed into any attribute that the mage had an affinity for.
Paul was both a Qi warrior and an arch mage which meant that he could use all the elements on top of the Qi energy which would make him very powerful but for now he was a mere mortal who would have a problem with defeating even the weakest beast even if he wasn't paralyzed.
This however was about to change as he stripped his clothes and sat under a tree with his back against the trunk,he set his legs in the right position and once he was ready he closed his eyes and started absorbing Qi from around him.
It was easy for him now since he was doing it for over a decade in his previous life.
A few minutes after he started he had a breakthrough and he entered the first stage of body cleansing starting his path as a cultivator.
There were many levels of cultivation but all of them were divided into a hundred stages so right now he would have to break through another ninety nine stages to reach another level.
Paul didn't even open his eyes and continued to cultivate, growing stronger with every breakthrough which took him longer and longer to achieve as the amount of power required doubled each time.
After a few hours Paul opened his eyes which shone with golden light as he managed to reach level seven of the body cleansing stage.
His nostrils were immediately assaulted by an odor of rotten eggs and his whole body was covered with a black sticky slime like substance which was the impurities that accumulated in his body and now they were cleansed and ejected through his skin.
He knew that this would happen so he chose a tree closest to the river and he crawled into the water to clean himself up.
After a cold bath he crawled back out and sat himself up by the fire that was almost out so he tossed in some more wood and soon it was again burning, drying him with its warmth.
When he was dry again it was time to cultivate some Mana which he started to gather without moving from his spot by the fire.
Anyone who saw him would say that the sight was beautiful as the mana gathered around him making him look like he was surrounded by a rainbow dust that circled around him.
He absorbed mana a little at a time and he converted the absorbed portion into his own magic power.
It took him longer to achieve a first breakthrough but within fifteen minutes he became a first stage apprentice level mage.
Like the last time he didn't stop his cultivation and absorbed more and more mana leading him to gaining more breakthroughs.
When he finally stopped his cultivation he was already at a fifth stage of an apprentice level.
Just like Qi cultivation,the mana cultivation levels were divided into a hundred stages each.
His gains after only one night of cultivation might look like an enormous progress but in reality it was just a beginning and he still couldn't use any techniques or magic as his levels were simply too low.
After the training was done he felt tired as the first stages were draining since the human body wasn't used to handling that amount of power.
Paul was happy at his progress since it would take him at most a few more days to be able to cast simple spells and the Qi meditation was making his body stronger so it would be easier to learn how to walk again if his muscles were not atrophied from lack of use.
After his training he once again added some wood to the fire to keep it going and then he crawled into his shelter,falling asleep the moment he was inside.
The next morning he woke up thirsty and hungry,the thirst was easy enough to quench but the hunger was another matter since he had no food and he didn't dare to eat any plants not knowing what was edible and what was poisonous.
Paul was sure that most of the animals in this world were edible and so he chose to try his hand in fishing and trapping since he couldn't hunt in any other way for now.
First he had to do some preparations as he wanted to set up some fishing rods as well as some traps for the fish and some snares for the small animals that he hoped would come somewhere near this place.
He splitted some of the paracord into smaller threads and made a simple fishing rod with a wooden hook that he saw how to make on the internet.
Next he took some smaller branches and made some traps that looked a lot like a small kage.
The work went slowly but soon he had a few rods and traps for the fish.
Now he had to find some bait and the best thing he could think of was to look for some bugs.
He didn't have to look for long as he found a dead fish on the shore and some bugs under a dead fallen tree,
He baited his rods with the bugs and cut the small dead fish into pieces and tied them to his traps after which he tossed them into the water and now all he could do was wait and pray that he caught something.
While waiting for a bite Paul started cultivating again as that was the only thing that he could do right now.
The faster he became stronger the better as the moment he reached level fifty of the apprentice stage of mana cultivation he would be able to cast some weak healing spells on himself and begin the process of healing his legs.
At the same time he would need to become a level fifty in the body cleansing stage so that his legs would have enough strength to allow him to walk.
After a few hours of cultivation he had risen his levels to ten in Qi and seven in mana cultivation.
Unfortunately his rods had no bites but one of his traps had a fish inside,it wasn't big but it was still a fish and that meant that he had something to eat and the remains could be used as bait again.
After some preparations Paul simply baked the fish over fire and ate it.
There were only a few bites but it was hot and it was food even if it wasn't delicious it was better than nothing.
Moreover he used the guts and the head to bait the traps again and decided to leave them in the water for the night.
After that he prepared himself for another night of cultivation.