Angeta growls for a bit but then spits out a word. “Fine!”
She starts speaking in a halting manner, pausing in a rhythm along with every attack or block she makes.
“Father was a powerful fighter who joined a new village ruler. This lord had just earned Ooof a border farming village, lots of goat folk.”
Angeta looks like a sapling, swaying in the breeze. She constantly shifts on her feet and keeps her weight balanced correctly now, allowing her to quickly change position.
“Got settled in, then got HYAH attacked by slaver party. Got captured along with half the population; the rest got killed.”
Vox is a mixed blur. He shifts from extreme speed to performing precisely positioned dodges and counter attacks. His attacks come lightning fast as opposed to Angeta’s, hers start slowly, like a tree keeling over. Vox is using this small break in her fighting style to narrowly dodge the forceful attacks coming his way. Every attack of the redheaded boy causes Angeta to jump back immediately, her form swaying around the attacks.
“Learned that it was a Hyuck noble’s son’s vacation. He wanted to do some casual slaving and thus he brought a lot of mages. Then Teacher captur.. freed me after I was split off from the rest.”
Neither of them have an edge in the battle until Vox overextends his foot by half a centimetre. The beast woman capitalises on this mistake by stepping in and planting a knee in his midriff. The attack lands with the force of a falling tree.
Instead of doubling over in pain, Vox retaliates with the same move, flinging Angeta a few metres backwards. She does double over in pain and lies on the ground, gasping for air.
Vox pulls his shirt up and moves his fingers over the exposed white scales.
“That is the single good thing about these, I have extra armour here.”
There are a couple of dozen pristine scales growing around his navel. They don’t look like they give much protection, but Angeta’s powerful knee attack failed to do much to Vox. He smiles wryly while pulling his shirt down.
“We both earned a question, honey. It’s your turn. Want to hear mine?”
She nods in response, so Vox starts talking while he gets into a fighting stance.
“There was a noble boy whose parents were human. His siblings and teacher were human. And on his twelfth birthday this-” ACK. Vox uses both arms to defend against the kick Angeta had been preparing while lying on the ground. He rubs his forearms while retreating.
“On his twelfth birthday, this boy discovered an itching spot on his belly. He scratched it and showed it to his mum. She HOooh realised that her son was not human and sent him off in a carriage. On vacation in the middle of a dangerous forest. With just the clothing on my body. Because that boy was tainted goods.”
Vox’s ability to switch between fighting styles is improving with every punch. He was a bit awkward with the sudden transitions at first, but the alternating fast and slower styles of fighting have started to flow into each other.
“I lear… That boy learned a lot in the following year.” Vox’s aura becomes savage for a split second. Angeta’s short, stumpy tail poofs up in an instinctual response.
“That boy knew a lot about the world, he had pretty good educators that gave lessons at home, in the past. Even some ACK basic sword lessons. He did not know a lot huff huff about the real world. When I found a way out of the forest, a year later, that changed.”
Vox’s attacks had started out as timid probes, hardly worth the effort of dodging. Now, they gain a sharp edge, causing Angeta to focus on defence in order to avoid the savage and sharp attacks.
She jumps back, creating a short lull in the duel. “Is that why you act so… flamboyant sometimes?”
Vox attacks while replying. “Do you know what happens to delvers who Huck show a noble’s mannerism?”
She blocks every punch and kick coming her way, her defence getting better with each blocked hit. “Do you have a question left?”
“Can’t I ask questions? Didn’t the rule only force someone to answer if hit?”
“Who said you can’t ask questions?”
Their focus goes back to fighting for a while. They try to hit each other, but they both have learned the other’s fighting style, and everything gets blocked or dodged.
“Does something bad happen to delvers who act like nobles?”
Vox’s face goes blank, no expression visible as he dodges a punch that grazes his eyebrows. “Then what about the fact that noble delvers always end up dead?”
“So you were a high noble or something?” Angeta timed her voice her with her punches.
“Why didn’t you suggest to go and rescue your own people when Teacher asked our input?”
Both fighting figures now have grim masks on, their casual sparring kicked up a notch. Both now aim for weak points and vitals, trying to truly hurt the other.
“Hooh, stop for a second.” Vox puts both his hands up while jumping back. “Small break.”
The beast woman eyes him warily while he walks to the edge of the clearing. They are located halfway between the Tree and the edge of this small world in a cleared piece of forest. A hairy tube is curled up in a corner and Vox walks up to it. He grabs a ring lying on the furry snake and pulls a green piece of stone from it. He puts it to his forehead and closes his eyes.
Angeta is on the opposite side of the clearing, scratching a dark grey rodent under the chin. The four-metre long rodent covered in spiky dragon scales with faint flames coming from its feet and face makes happy noises while enjoying the petting.
“Hmmh, so from that… no this transition should… that punch from that stance, alright.” Vox murmurs to himself as he opens his eyes. He puts the stone back in the ring and the ring back on the curled up animal who seems asleep. He then walks back to the centre and gets into a stance. Angeta also puts her piece of jade back and walks back while talking.
“Who was the scale-kin in your ancestry?”
“How can a noble family have tainted blood in their family line?”
“Did those scales appear out of nowhere then?”
“What would you do if you had to choose between admitting your entire family should be slaves or doing away with your second son?”
They appear at a verbal stalemate. Vox slowly raises his hand, causing Angeta to flinch back.
“Let’s say that I have been healing myself, should I admit it or keep it to myself?”
Angeta’s eyebrows raise up. She starts saying something but is cut off by a sparkling display of light flowing into her body. Her slightly downcast shoulders straighten back up as she starts bouncing on her feet again. The same lights also sparkle across Vox himself.
“So, an entire family line executed or banished, or make a single son disappear?”
With those words, he attacks her again. His switching between maximum speed and maximum precision is nearly instantaneous now, both styles flowing into each other. Angeta is swaying around his advances like a leaf in the wind, but attacks with the force of a massive tree crashing to the ground.
“Would you return to your home if you would just be enslaved on sight?”
Vox halts in his movement for a split second but blocks the incoming punch just in time. He uses the incoming momentum to pull Angeta over, launching her with a throw. She lands on her feet and jumps back into the fight, kicking up a spray of grass clumps. The fight continues for a long while, but neither of them gain the right to force an answer out of the other.
⁂
So I have been on this planet for two weeks now. This marks day fourteen, and I am spending it the same as the last few, riding my blue bear. We have been travelling for the entire day, following the road going north. Forests started surrounding us around noon, so we are walking in the shade.
It is fairly busy on this road; Angeta is inside the Tree and Vox is keeping her company. They are truly fighting each other now. I feel like giving them some privacy for some reason, so I don’t peek much.
&n
bsp; Back in the beast clearing, I showed everyone a few tricks on how to become a proficient leatherworker easily, using qi of course. Bord has trouble with this type of fine qi control. He decides to do everything manually. He can clad his fingers in a qi blade without problems, but his qi control stops at a few centimetres above his skin. Honestly, he did better than I expected.
My other five disciples did a lot better, their qi control was fine enough to make clean cuts and shove thread through leather from a distance. So we transformed from a group of weirdos with a zoo into a shady team of mercenary merchants.
Now we either sell you stuff or beat you up. All our animals have dark leather straps holding bags and crates strapped to various places. It gives the animals a really cheap do-it-yourself-goth vibe.
There is actually valuable stuff inside the packs, and Ket has a real knack for negotiating prices. My students are earning pocket money from selling their share of the loot. They cleared nearly half the dungeon, so I magnanimously gifted them one tenth of the loot pile. They each got a share of the loot worth a literal tonne of gold, so they have all been pawning their wares at the various rests tops and small villages.
I don’t need more junk in my ring, so I use my students to clean the place up. We stop for a few hours every night. They used to spend some time sleeping or meditating in their own homes, but now they spend most of that time in market research. They are either rooting through the piles of items or attempting to craft new ones.
We have been making rather good progress; we will reach the first north western mountains later today.
“Who would win the mountain climb now?”
My casual question shatters the relaxed atmosphere. A big cat lands beside my blue bear without a single sound. This is a concerning development actually; Tess has been in total stealth practice mode the moment she met that cat. She is always creeping up on someone, often her own mount, who is creeping up on her in return.
I give an internal scream of despair, Lola already ended up weird, with her head butt and horn fixation. Don’t let the fake happy girl become a creepy sneak girl, please.
“I would win again.”
I look at the rest, Bord is riding his chitin covered bull, Selis sits proudly on her black feathered chicken and Ket rides a fairly boring metal horse. I think about changing the subject but Ket cuts me off.
“Bord will win.”
Everyone looks at him. They shift their glances to Bord shortly after. Tess scoffs and rubs her cat between the ears. We ride in silence for a while until Ket breaks it.
“Teach, can you tell us some more about the wo…”
“Hometown” I interrupt him. “You want to ask questions about my hometown? Sure, but please remember that everyone can hear us.”
Ket looks at the other people travelling this road. We are overtaking a lot of peasants riding wagons. They all seem to be moving to Tower City or the capital further north.
Ket coughs a bit before continuing. “Your… hometown. Was everyone a wielder of such… powers?”
I think about what to tell him. I really should save this topic of discussion for later, but talking around such sensitive subjects can be fun. Let see how good my students are at verbal sparring.
“Everyone thought with their guts. Some people really used their hearts, but they were looked down upon, like dumb brutes only good for guard duty.” I nod to myself. There were small sects in the far reaches of civilisation that practised body cultivation, but they were seen as dumb brutes on a dead-end path. Their main occupation was bodyguard and food taster for influential mortals; a body cultivator has impeccable danger instincts and is immune to a lot of poisons after all.
“I think that back when people first started to understand these energies, some must have tried to think with their heads. They must have become insane after a while; I only discovered that I could automate by accident. That at least explains why all the ancient texts of my hometown were filled with dire warnings against using your head.”
Ket rubs the back of his head while Bord scratches his chest. Selis is looking at flowers while Tess has disappeared again. I can feel a big shape flitting through the forest around us. It then gets tackled by a smaller shape dropping down from a tree. She seems to be having fun.
“It is getting dark again; we should make camp.”
They all perk up at my muttering. We could keep going through the night, but that would be suspicious. The only way to attract more attention than that would be to completely cover ourselves in armour and ride through the night. We would be accosted by everyone who would see us.
I start looking for a place to settle down, but Tree seems to want my attention. I wave the minuscule thread of golden qi away and touch my necklace.
I see that Angeta and Vox have stopped fighting as they are both sitting down. Both are producing some weird qi fluctuations.
“Let us stop here, your other two fellow disciples seem to be trying to advance.”
I grin at the small group following me. I am curious how they got in that situation, their mentalities are not ready for such an advancement by a long shot. I guess I’ll intervene before permanent injuries start to happen.
Chapter forty-nine
Details
“Let me refresh your memories. You are all in the qi gathering stage. This is the introduction to cultivating, slowly gathering qi into your core of choice while learning how to control it.”
My qi clone is back in action! I fixed his leakage by pumping the large amount of qi I got from the Tower into its skin. He looks solid now but his insides are still a complete mess. The skin now forms a hermetic seal around the rest of the qi construct, keeping it together without conscious effort on my part.
Tree has been absorbing some mana, turning it into more qi, but the largest part of the Tower qi was just floating through the air. I grabbed it because it still had my fingerprints on it and forced the development of my qi clone a few steps forward. Now I am standing in the small clearing Angeta and Vox were fighting in while lecturing.
My real body is sitting in our empty camp. A few empty tents keep up the pretence while I alone am still outside.
“Vox and Angeta have just proven to themselves that they have enough qi control to step into qi condensation. They are sweating this much because they don’t know what to do now.”
I focus back inside my clone and keep on talking. I have placed my hands on the two disciples’ heads and am temporarily stopping the process that is ongoing.
“What they need to do is to compress their qi filled cores into a single point. Just squeeze the fuck out of it. They are having such trouble because they don’t have sufficient mental strength yet. The qi inside this pocket dimension is a lot easier to absorb than what new cultivators usually can get access too, so their latest sparring session pushed them over the stage edge prematurely. I think that the main reason for this ease of cultivation is due to the lack of ambient qi. Not needing to separate your own from the loads of normal qi is likely a contributing factor.”
That is my current theory anyway. I never had proper disciples before, so I’m improvising a lot here.
“It’s also no coincidence that these two are the only ones who have not set a foot inside the library. Knowledge is power and the four of you who did spend some time in there know this now. These two,” I rap both sweating figures on the head, “thought that they were the top of the world after slapping each other a bit and thus decided to advance. They don’t even know how much they don’t know.”
I smile peacefully at them all. “I can only teach; it is your job to listen. Don’t blame me when my totally awesome advice gets ignored.”
I keep smiling while looking down. Angeta and Vox are drowning in sweat with grimaces on their faces. I think I’ve let them suffer for long enough, so I mentally reach into their bellies and pull some of the qi out. This allows the process to halt. Many aspiring cultivators have died while their qi was in such a lockup. Failing to
breakthrough, they call it.
These two numbskulls must have grasped at some path forwards when their core filled with gaseous qi. Starting to squeeze it must have allowed new qi inside, overfilling their core. Imagine the worst case of gas and flatulence in the entire universe, and you might get a sense of the predicament they were in.
My cultivation experiences in this world so far have been absurd and should not be used for reference, by the way. My mind and body both remember being at the height of immortal cultivation. I can reconstruct my own cultivation base with relative ease if I have enough qi at my disposal. I have figured out the solutions to these type of blocks and obstacles a long time ago, after all. My soul could be considered freakishly strong, I guess, so cultivating is rather easy for me. I was at the pre-ascension stage a few weeks ago, so my strength of will and breadth of experience is incomparable to these kids. I stop polishing my own pride and look both sitting figures in the eyes.
“I would not recommend doing that again before you have some more experience. Portions of the qi you actively use gets absorbed into your body. It goes from an active, controllable state to a passive helper function. Neither of you has enough of this construction qi in your physical brain to muster the willpower to advance. Nor do either of you possess enough skills in qi control.”
I turn to the beastwoman who is still panting heavily.
“Especially you; please do some more critical thinking. Form your own opinions instead of just repeating what you’ve been told.”
I hold my hand up and push a sizable amount of qi outside, controlling it into a sphere.
“A good test of whether you’re ready or not is to simulate what you need to do for that realm advancement. This is around the amount of qi needed to form your first drops of liquid qi. If you can do this…”
I close my fist while contracting the floating sphere. It starts out as a translucent white, but my slow compression causes it to cloud up quickly. I keep squeezing while the sphere of qi starts shining like a light. A final closing of my fist causes a flash of brightness.
The DAO of Magic Page 39