Daniel Ashford's Perspective
Daniel stood in his family's private training hall, repeatedly striking a practice dummy with Bronze Peak enhanced blows. Each strike was filled with frustration, anger, humiliation.
"Again!" His instructor, a retired Gold Rank soldier named Captain Voss, barked. "Your form is sloppy. Emotions make you weak."
"I don't care about form!" Daniel's next strike shattered the practice dummy. "I care about being strong enough to beat Marcus Aldrich!"
Voss sighed. "The fat alchemist who humiliated you in that duel? Boy, you need to let go of—"
"Don't call him that." Daniel's voice was cold. "He's not just some fat alchemist. He's Silver Rank now. Silver Rank in three months from Iron. He's tournament champion, member of Ascending Circle, has House Thornvale's patronage. He's everything I'm supposed to be, except he's doing it better."
"So work harder. Train smarter. Become strong enough that his advantages don't matter."
"I am!" Daniel pulled out a vial of red liquid. "I've been taking cultivation acceleration potions. Expensive ones. My father doesn't know, but I've spent thirty thousand gold on enhancements. I'm pushing my Bronze Peak to the breaking point, forcing advancement through sheer chemical pressure."
Voss's expression darkened. "Those potions are dangerous. They damage your foundation, create instability—"
"I don't care. I need to reach Silver Rank. Then I challenge Marcus again and prove I'm not the joke he made me out to be." Daniel drank the potion, grimacing at the bitter taste. His cultivation flared wildly, power surging through damaged channels. "Three more months of this and I'll break through. Then everything changes."
"Or you cripple yourself permanently. Those potions exact a price, boy."
"Every price is worth paying to stop being dismissed as a failure." Daniel activated another training dummy, his eyes burning with obsessive determination. "Marcus Aldrich will acknowledge me. One way or another."