“You do not need to say any more, my lord.” Pan Kun gave him a deep bow. He knew it was only through his trust that he was allowed to know these secrets and possibly gain this pill.
“Our paths have only started. Doesn’t it fill your bones with fire?” Aditya stood. He no longer looked like the angered and wronged lord of the past. There was life in his eyes.
He’s looking past Vermire, past the Beast Mountain Range. Pan Kun trembled and a grin appeared on his face. “Who doesn’t dream of ascending to the higher realms?”
Aditya looked at Pan Kun and his smile turned into a laugh as the two of them couldn’t hold themselves back anymore.
***
Glosil stood on the wall of the barracks, looking at the different groups training below.
“They’re looking good,” Glosil said as newly promoted Captain Domonos approached.
“Major Glosil.” Domonos saluted.
Glosil returned the gesture and smiled. The two of them relaxed.
“It won’t be long until we take another jump in rank with the way recruiting is looking in Vuzgal. It should slow down as we progress but learning how to manage so many people is a large undertaking. Have you sent up you Dragon Company’s training staff?”
“I sent Sergeant—sorry, Lieutenant Choi up to Vuzgal already. He should be there now with the training cadre to train up the recruits and assist Tiger Company,” Domonos said.
“Annoyed that they beat you in becoming a combat company first?” Glosil asked.
“A little, but my younger brother has always been determined.” Domonos smirked.
Glosil snorted, a shadow of a smile on his face. “You will be heading up to Vuzgal to take their place in three months. At that time, we should have four combat companies’ worth of strength. The first of the Vuzgal soldiers will have graduated their scout courses and be coming down here to complete their mage and engineer courses, or staying up there to complete their mortar and medic courses. Every month, we will add another combat company’s worth of privates to the military.”
Domonos looked out at the people in the barracks. There were all kinds of different courses being taught. Some groups were headed out to the academy for lessons. Others were sparring or listening to their leaders with rapt attention.
“So when will we make a move on the Willful Institute?”
Glosil let out a slow breath and his expression darkened. “There are two thoughts: leave them alone and they’ll leave us alone, or, we make an example. If we make an example, the current Adventurer’s Guild won’t be enough. They’ll need to be stronger in order to fight them. A long drawn out fight isn’t to our benefit either.”
Glosil didn’t miss Domonos’s cold look.
“They have tested us time and time again, we will tear them apart, but we will do it through the Adventurer’s Guild, hit them where they’re weakest, where they make their money. We’ll weaken their powers economically, Elan is gathering constant information on them. We can insert our own people into the Adventurer’s Guild and attack them, not drawing attention to us. Though there is a possibility that we will be found out. The best case, they find out that Vuzgal is behind the attacks, worst case, they could learn about Alva.”
“What would happen if Alva is found out?” Domonos asked.
“We don’t know, the fact we have a complete dungeon under our control, the resources we’re able to raise there and items we can craft, it could be a minor issue, or it could lead to a fight we can’t win,” Glosil said.
“Being unknown is our greatest defense,” Domonos said.
“You hit it on the head,” Glosil nodded.
The silence stretched and Glosil rested his elbows on his desk, weaving his fingers together to hold his chin.
“I know that you have issue with the Willful Institute. I’ll make a promise to you, if you make one to me.”
Domonos turned to face Glosil, waiting on his words.
“Promise me that you will be the best commander possible, that you will carry out your orders to the best of your abilities and not let your emotions cloud your judgement and I will let you lead the campaign against the Willful Institute.” Glosil held Domonos’s eyes.
“I will uphold my position and follow my orders,” Domonos said.
“Don’t forget it.” Glosil added a bit of steel into his voice.
“Yes, Major,” Domonos said.
“Good.” Glosil nodded and the atmosphere lightened. “You’ve done well with your people. I look forward to seeing how capable they are later on.”
***
“No, if you just charge right in there, you’ll kill them all. You’ve spent too much time on the Fire floor. You’re spewing out flames from everywhere!” Egbert said.
“It looks cool, though!”
“It’s wasteful. If you seal them up, then I can let you have some of that ice cream I talked about,” Egbert said with a sinister smile.
There was a quick sucking noise and the flames around Davin disappeared in a second.
Egbert looked at him but Davin couldn’t read the undead skeleton’s expression. His long tongue hung out of his mouth and his too-wide eyes stared up at him.
“Fire imps,” Egbert muttered to himself as he took out a small tub of ice cream. Egbert held it out.
“Here you are!” Davin had grabbed it. Using his tongue as a scoop, he pulled out all the ice cream. His jaw opened to take it all in and he closed it around the ice cream.
He closed his eyes in bliss but then he held his head, his eyes alternating between closed and open as he moved around on one foot to the other. “Urggh, my ’ead’s ’urtin’!”
“Ah, I think that’s what is called a brain freeze.”
“’AIN ’EEZE! MY B’AIN WI’ ’EEZE?”
“Your brain will not freeze, just be cold.” Egbert let out a sigh, watching Davin alternate between loving the ice cream to undergoing a frozen hell that was affecting the interior of his skull.
It took him some time before he stopped. “More?”
Egbert studied the imp in front of him, blinking a few times.
“You okay?” Davin asked after some time.
“You just spent close to an hour with a frozen head and you want more?”
“It tastes really good, though.”
“I don’t get you flesh bags.” Egbert shook his head. “Now, what is your plan to take over the Wood floor?” Egbert asked like a parent asking their kid how they were supposed to act in school. Davin was constantly forgetful. Now he was even stronger Egbert didn’t want to repeat some of the mishaps that Davin had when he was younger.
“Well, I tell them that I control the floor or I burn it down,” Davin said.
Egbert looked at Davin a bit longer before straightening and tapping his chin with a bony finger. “You know what, it’s not your worst plan. They’re all beasts...respect strength. Fire beats wood...you’re enough beast and sentient to scare them silly. Worth a shot. Though it looks like the main formation is broken,” Egbert said.
“Then I take someone with me to repair the formation,” Davin said.
“If you use your flames, then you’ll burn them too,” Egbert said.
“What about someone in those heat things?”
“Those were the gnomes and people don’t have those. Erik has a high resistance to heat but he’s the lord of the dungeon. Can’t put him in danger.”
“What about you? You’re resistant to fire,” Davin said.
“I’m not resistant. You know how long it takes for me to get the burns off my bones.” Egbert waved his finger at Davin. Who shrugged nonchalantly.
“I am not going down there with you! I hate repairing formations. It’s so boring and dull!”
Davin continued to look at Egbert.
“Nothing you can say could convince me!”
Davin waited another five minutes, yawning.
“I just washed my bones three years ago!”
Davin laid down on the grou
nd and started a nap.
“The stains took a special herbal remedy that was lost with the gnomes.”
***
Rugrat slapped his legs, bringing all their attention on him. “Mana Gathering Cultivation is drawing mana into the body, compressing it and transforming the body to hold more mana! What is Mana Gathering Cultivation?”
“Mana Gathering Cultivation is drawing mana into the body, compressing it and transforming the body to hold more mana!” They started off slowly but pulled it together as they spoke.
“Good! Now, mana gates. So to start cultivating mana, you need to have at least one open mana gate. It is the path of mana to enter your body. If you don’t have an open mana gate, then you can increase your mana attribute, but it won’t change anything. To open mana gates, you need to blast them apart with mana. Think of them as debris in a dried-up river. You need to flush that river with water, bring it alive and then destroy that debris that has created a dam!
“When you open your mana gates, can you increase the density of the mana in your channels? Hell yes, you can. Why? Well, you have more mana entering your body. If you are filling a bucket, will putting it under one water tap or two water taps fill it faster?” He looked around and pointed at someone.
“The two taps?”
“Hell yeah, the two will be faster. So more mana gates mean it will be easier to increase your Mana Gathering Cultivation. When you compress your core, you can open another mana gate. If you open all of your mana gates, then it changes your mana channels, opening them wider—increases how in tune you are with mana. Gives you a big boost. If you only have one mana gate open but have compressed your core, does that mean you can’t open your mana gates?
“You can still open your mana gates, but it’s going to be harder than before.”
A group of hands went up and Rugrat pointed to them.
“So it is better to open your mana gates before you compress your core?”
“With what we understand right now, yes, it will have the greatest benefit.”
“I have reached the Mist stage of mana gathering but my spells aren’t more powerful.”
“Do you mean that with more power, the effect remains the same?” Rugrat frowned.
“The mana consumption to effect is still the same—shouldn’t it cost me less mana?”
“Increasing the effect of a spell, or its power without increasing the mana you’re supplying, you need to work on your spell casting. Mana is the fuel for your spells, but spell casting is directing it.” Rugrat saw the person sink into thought as he looked at another person.
“I can’t find the mana gates in my wrists. Might I only have twelve mana gates?”
“How many are listed in your quest?”
“Fourteen.”
“I think you’ll probably have fourteen then. I get asked this frequently—where are they?
“Your mana gates should be located in the arches of your feet, in your knee, in the base of your spine, your dantian. Where your back rounds at the top, at the base of your neck, base of your skull where your spine meets it, at the back of your head. Then, in the arms, you have one at your elbow and your wrist. Now, are all of these gates in these exact places?”
Rugrat looked around. “Nope! Go and see a medic. They can help you in locating your gates. They might be in your hands, upper arm, or something like that.”
“What about mana gates and Mana Cultivation? Why are there fifteen gates? What about the fourteenth gate being your core?” one student asked.
Rugrat looked around, trying to find the right words. “Okay, so Mana Gathering Cultivation and mana gates are separate things, but they are linked to one another. So, I like to use the analogy of water when talking about mana. Mana gates are like little dams: you open more of the dams, then more water can enter. Mana Gathering Cultivation is the amount of water that you can hold within your body, how much you can compress it. One is the streams of mana through your body, the other the bucket of water you can hold. Okay, this is going to be a bit wordy but if you’re interested pay attention!” Rugrat cleared his throat.
“Opening one’s fourteenth mana gate and forming your mana core allows one to step onto a whole new stage.
It is also like resetting all of your previous mana cultivation.
People in the ten realms used all kinds of aids and supplies to draw mana into their dantian, many of don’t even know it was where they could find their fourteenth mana gate, they just force the mana into that area and compressed it, drawing in more and compressing again and again, forcefully creating their mana core, some are lucky and open up their fourteenth mana gate, others just formed their mana core.
“If creating their mana core had been like filling a bucket of water with a spoon, filling their mana core was like filling a pond with a spoon.
“You have to draw mana in from their surroundings, in through your open mana gates to their mana core, it would automatically purify and cleanse the mana leaving only a small portion behind. Now, we know about the vapor, mist and Drop stages, I thought like you that they were their own stages, for mana cultivation, you need to have a mana core to truly start your cultivation. You see we used those stages to open our mana gates and form our mana core. Now to pass the mana core stage you need to compress your gathered mana into Vapor, then Mist and Drop stages again inside their mana core filling it up.”
“What happens when you fill it up?” A student asked.
“Then your mana core becomes solid and you reach the Mana heart stage,” Rugrat said.
“What are the pros and cons of opening our mana gate and taking the Alva route of mana gathering cultivation instead of forming our mana core right away and then opening our mana gates?” Another asked.
“Good question. You learn how to create vapor, mist and drops so it will be faster when you form your core. While you can open your mana gates after creating your mana core, it will be much harder than before and your capacity for your mana core will be smaller.” Seeing that they were a little confused Rugrat paused.
“Okay, so I took the harder route, my foundation is stronger I opened all fifteen mana gates, going through mana rebirth that altered my body on a fundamental level, my mana channels transformed turning into veins that run throughout my body, they became more refined, able to hold more mana.”
He drew in mana from the surrounding area a powerful suction force as power entered his mana gates, tracing through his veins and to his Mana core. The students muttered and talked to one another staring at him with wide eyes.
“My mana veins automatically compress the mana, my mana core is much larger than others, allowing me to store much more power, this will take longer to fill up, but my mana veins allow me to cast mana intensive spells easily, my mana channels would be strained and I couldn’t use all my mana in one shot. I can utilize a mana domain, again something others who took the easier route wouldn’t be able to do. Though the biggest advantage is that my mana core naturally draws in mana.”
There was a collective gasp and some hastily raised hands.
“So if you’re sleeping then your cultivation would naturally increase?” A student asked.
“Correct,” Rugrat smiled, pointing at the speaker.
An older student raised her hand.
“So the stages are really mana core, Vapor, Mist, Drop, then solid mana core?”
“Yes, your mana gates will be your foundation to build your mana cultivation upon.”
***
“It’s a damn movement technique! That means it augments your attacks! Fight and move at the same time!” Erik barked as he walked around the barracks.
“Phillips, I swear, if you throw that fancy punching shit in here again I will put you through a wall!”
The man in question looked around, dumbfounded, as Erik wasn’t even looking at him. “How did he?”
“You’re pissing mana all over the place with your punch. It’s wasteful and more than that, your body can’t take t
hat punishment. If your Body Cultivation was higher, it would be fine. Stop sneaking to the medics to get them to heal you up. They will have people who are seriously injured on the battlefield and don’t have time to deal with your dumb cocky ass! What are the rest of you doing?”
Erik’s voice dropped lower as people were slowing down their movements. They looked at their partners with equal parts apology and also determination as they fought harder, not wanting to draw his ire.
“There are many paths for combat techniques. No one of them is right. The fundamentals here are fluid for a reason. You can fight and listen at the same time, Tian Cui!
“As I was saying, the fundamentals give you a starting point. It opens you up to the field of study. As you grow, you will develop your own fighting style; fighting with one another will refine that fighting art. Reading and studying combat arts will inject new ideas and new inspiration to make up for the weaknesses that you have found. A combat art is not some holy sword that’s going to allow you to Rampage Jackson across the realms and give the finger to some all-powerful being! You are the metal; your training, your knowledge, and your experiences will turn you into a weapon! This is why when you are fighting, you better damn well fight!”
Erik shot across the training grounds, one hand behind his back as he attacked Storbon.
Storbon ground his teeth together and fought back, taking hits but staying with it.
“Keep your feet behind you, not in front, to push forward and maintain your balance!” Erik swiped at Storbon’s feet. As Storbon took the hit and rolled back to get distance, Erik was on top of him seconds later.
“Good use of the other’s attack to gain distance. Training with a spear, you expect that reach—keep your arms closer to your body so you can pull back and defend!” Erik grabbed an outstretched arm, used his momentum and came behind Storbon, aiming a kick at his knee and his free fist for Storbon’s kidney.
Storbon dropped, dislocating his shoulder but breaking Erik’s grip as he used his strength to escape.
“Good!” Erik said, his eyes shining. “Pain is in your mind. You can use a concoction to recover, or your Body Cultivation,” Erik said, lowering his defenses.
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