Hatchling

by Lupine King

  Now understanding what his role was Valerian did not hesitate. “I, Valerian, son of Valiant, Surnamed Steelborn, Prospect of the arcane path, Scion of the house of Cragsveil, am willing and honoured to be your student”.

  Jonas nodded happily. Despite this, he felt a small pang of regret. Student, not apprentice. This was a major detail for arcanists. A student you taught, but an apprentice you trained, you passed legacies down to, you raised; you handed down your hopes and dreams for him or her to complete. He was sad because he was not qualified to have Valerian as an apprentice. In fact, he was unqualified to have anyone as his apprentice. He was still too low on the power chart and more importantly, he had no legacies or spells to hand down.

  He comforted himself with the fact that it would not always be the case. He would eventually make a name for himself and have numerous apprentices. In addition, teaching Valerian was sure to be good practice for when they finally came around.

  “Before I teach you magic there are some things you must know. First off, what I did back there was use a spell. It allowed me to collect world essence and shape it into a ball of fire. That is how the arcane arts work. World essence is a strange and powerful force. It is dense and all attributed. Every element is present in it; fire, water, metal, wind, earth and all the others.

  “What an arcanist does is that using his own essence, he summons the surrounding world essence and places it under his control. Then he shapes it, converts it into whatever element or attribute he wants and uses it. In my case, I summoned fire attributed essence, concentrated it in my palm and shaped it into a sphere. I can then fire it at someone or use it for something else”.

  ‘Like scare your student you mean’, Valerian thought. He kept his mouth shut though.

  “However that requires control over arcane energy something you do not have so our first task will be to help you find your energy and control it”.

  “Find it?” Valerian asked a surprised look on his face.

  “Yes find it! Or have you already discovered it?” Jonas asked expectantly.

  Valerian quickly shook his head. He would know if he had a world warping energy at his fingertips or sloshing about in his gut. Jonas, on his part, corrected his expression. It was too much to hope for that Valerian would have already made contact with his arcane energy. It seemed he might have gotten too used to his nephew performing incredible feats. While contacting your arcane energy on your own was not too difficult it required some stimulus such as danger which was not something a sheltered boy like Valerian would have experienced.

  “People like you who possess arcane energy but have not accessed it yet are called prospects. Once you’ve done so you will have officially stepped on the arcane path as an Arcane Disciple. However, it is not so easy to be an arcane disciple. It is the first step and the foundation for your career as an arcanist and thus requires special preparation.

  “It is split into five sub-stages which are; the arcane baptism, energy gathering, arcane manifestation, sea formation and the energy condensed stages. Only when these are achieved can a person truly be called an arcane disciple. Thus, arcane disciples who have completed all these steps are called true or consolidated arcane disciples.

  “The arcane baptism requires you to use your newly acquired arcane energy to transform your body into a vessel capable of absorbing world essence and transforming it into arcane energy. The energy gathering stage is where you begin training your energy, and as the name implies increase it thanks to your arcane baptism. Once you have a sizeable amount, you can then extend it outside your body in the arcane manifestation stage. It is at this stage that you can begin casting spells.

  The majority of the disciple realm though involves the gathering of arcane energy. This is done with the intention of creating a sea of arcane energy within the body to support the drain of spells. Once that is achieved, this sea can then be condensed into an arcane crystal in the final stage aptly named the energy condensation stage. It is only when the arcane crystal is formed that a person can be called a true arcane disciple”.

  As such, our current goal is to help you make contact with your arcane energy. Then, you can use the Manifold Elemental Incarnations to perform your baptism. When that is done I can begin teaching you what I know about the arcane arts”.

  Valerian was excited now. How could he not be? He was on the cusp of becoming an actual arcanist. Soon he too would be able to conjure balls of fire to fling at his enemies. Maybe not fire but wind and metal were definitely assured.

  Finding his arcane energy was simple. The only reason he could not control it was because he was unaware of it. All he had to do was bring it under his perception. This could be done by having someone insert his own arcane energy into his body to stimulate his own, or use an array to accomplish the same thing. Valerian opted for the array method.

  He sat cross-legged in the array, having been placed in a special introspective state. Honestly, Valerian had never felt anything like it. He had been made hyper-aware of himself, his immediate surroundings and most of all, his internal state. He could feel his heart pumping and the blood that flowed through his veins. He could even follow it as it meandered through his body’s pathways and dispersed into his organs. His mind was focused and his perception honed and aimed at himself.

  Jonas assured him that it was a meditative state that he would learn to enter on his own. That it was a simple, core skill for all cultivators. In the beginning, it was fine if his trainer helped him enter it but eventually he had to learn to do it on his own. Thankfully, it was not difficult to learn.

  All the same, Valerian was more concerned with sensing his arcane energy at the moment. He felt nothing which made him wonder whether Jonas had begun or not. It was at this point that he felt a now familiar and uncomfortable tingling sensation. Immediately, his inner world trembled and he felt it. It was like the clouds had parted and the sunlight was streaming in, illuminating a previously hidden part of him. A part he had never known. He sent his senses diving in.

  He perceived it as a giant agitated pool rumbling with tumultuous waves. Instinctively, he knew it was not supposed to be this way. It should be calm, tranquil. ‘The array must be causing this’, he realised. Reaching out to it with his mind, he tried to calm it. Instantly, the waves stopped. He looked on amazed as what had just been choppy water became peaceful with a mere thought. For a while, all he could do was test just how much control he had over it.

  He raised his own waves, parted it, shaped it into orbs that whizzed around. Even raised the entire pool hundreds of meters up and caused it to fall back down as rain. He was having so much fun he nearly forgot what he was meant to be doing but once he remembered, he immediately got to work.

  JONAS LOOKED AT VALERIAN with concern. Technically, the process was harmless but this was the first time he was on this side of things and with his first student too so he was justifiably nervous. Which is why relief flooded his face when he felt Valerian’s energy surge and then begin to circulate throughout his body. Clearly, the boy had started employing the [Manifold Elemental Incarnations] like he was supposed to. He could feel the world essence in the area swirl and converge around him.

  “How is it going?” he heard a voice ask.

  He turned around, confirming that it was his aunt who had spoken. He glanced around to see the rest of the family also revealing themselves. He was not surprised though he had felt their presences from the very beginning. It was Valerian’s first training session so of course, they would come.

  “Everything seems fine. It is even going better than expected”.

  His Aunt Clara laughed softly. “That’s Valerian for you. Always exceeding expectations”.

  Richard was next to speak. “What’s next?”

  “Well, he is supposed to circulate his energy in accordance with the method throughout his body for at least thirty complete cycles. Then, he will start using it to perform his baptism”, Jonas replied.

  “So we wait
?” his brother surmised.

  “Yes!” he admitted. He took a long look at his nephew sitting there in the middle of the courtyard. Then, dismissing the array in place, he created a completely new one. This one had two circles and its function was to gather world essence around Valerian.

  ‘That ought to cut the time down somewhat’, he thought. Then, he settled down on one of the stone benches to wait with the rest of the family.

  EIGHT

  Harriers and Cluders

  VALERIAN’S FIRST LESSON with Richard was exactly as could be expected. A set of training clothes was given to him the night before and when the sun rose, Richard came for him and dragged him, drowsy as he was to the courtyard. So, Valerian stood there in his new leather outfit, trying to rub the sleep out off his eyes in front of a frowning, armoured giant.

  “Sharpen up!” Richard barked.

  Valerian tried, he really did. He knew the kind of man his uncle was; Curt, strict and direct. He didn’t mince words, and on account of his throat injury, he did not like to speak much either. He was the second most feared person in the manor and the most dangerous at first glance. He was someone Valerian looked up to as a model of what a warrior should be.

  He didn’t want to disappoint the man. But getting dragged out of bed at sunrise was disorientating, to say the least. He now understood the complaints of the other manor guards. Looking up he saw Richard staring at him with a frown still on his face.

  “Run a lap around the courtyard,” the man barked at him.

  On account of his drowsiness, it took a few seconds before the words registered. Once they did his nearly halted. ‘Wait... what?’ he tried, half-heartedly to get out of it. It did not work, but he managed to compose himself enough to claim that he was fully awake. The cold frown on his uncle’s face stopped him though. It was clear that he was not getting out of this.

  It turned out that the run did wake him up. It left him tired and panting, but awake. He put his all into it hoping to at least impress the giant in front of him but he had no such luck. There was not even a hint of a change in the man's expression. It almost made him want to complain but he knew full well that it would get him nowhere. The guards that did usually had their training doubled.

  "The tellurian path is not an easy one. It requires a fit body and a lot of physical training. The body is a vessel and the better the vessel the better the qi that can be stored in it. Thus, to be a tellurian is to have a well-trained body. In addition to this, tellurians focus on physical combat which is impossible to use effectively without training. I will be responsible for yours".

  He paused here with a look of discomfort on his face. Valerian was worried. The scar running down his jaw looked extra red today. He wondered why. He knew that his uncle had been in the army at one point and had gotten severely injured in a mission. So injured in fact, he was bedridden for a half a year. He had to relearn how to talk and walk. His cultivation even declined. However, when he recovered he pushed himself so hard, he not only regained his former level, he surpassed it.

  It was even suspected that he was about to break into the King tier. All this Valerian had learnt from listening to the guards talk. It was one of the reasons he so respected the man. Anyone who could suffer such wounds, survive and make such a dramatic comeback was more than worthy of the respect.

  "The tellurian path is separated into seven tiers; Practitioner, Lord, King, Emperor, Sage, World Incarnate and Divinity. But being a tellurian is not as simple as using qi, accomplishing feats and breaking through the tiers. First, you have to transform your physical form. Using world essence and a chosen cultivation method you first have to transform your bones strengthening them and improving your marrow. Then your flesh so as to give you not only a strong frame but also dense, powerful musculature", his uncles said to him. "Once this is done, you may then open your meridians allowing you to channel qi throughout your body, completing your transformation and allowing you to use the battle skills and enhancements that tellurians are known for. Once you have gathered enough qi you may condense it into a core crystal and become a true tellurian practitioner".

  "All this, though, is a matter of cultivation. Something you will do on your own according to the clan's Great Monolithic Art. My mission is to sculpt you into a warrior and train you to fight. This does not mean that your cultivation and my training are separate. If you have any questions or run into any problems you tell me is that clear?"

  "Yes, sir!" Valerian exclaimed. Richard's eyes swept him for a moment and then nodded.

  "Every day after you wake up you will come here. Under my supervision, you will perform a series of drills and exercises before we move on to actual combat training. You may then leave and practise cultivation while I discharge my duties", again he paused to check if Valerian was following.

  "For combat, we will be practising the family's greatest martial art; The Fighting Arts Of Harry and Clude. Harry and Clude were ancestors of ours. They were twin tellurian combat geniuses who came up with an incredible fighting style that has become the official style of the entire clan. Its principles focus on teamwork and the maximisation of defence and attack.

  "The two brothers went everywhere together and did everything together. Whenever they had a task to do they would split it into two and each would take half. Fighting was no different. Clude, the older one, would defend and Harry would attack. It was simple and effective. Whilst Clude grabbed the enemy's attention and blocked the attacks, Harry would seize the opportunity to finish them off.

  "This does not mean that Harry could not protect himself or that Clude was incapable of attacking", he stressed. "Anyone not careful when facing Clude would get a shield bash to the face and a blade to the gut. Each just had a primary focus and together they covered each other's weaknesses whilst maximising group effectiveness. That is why it is required training for all Steelborns. It is a fighting style that maximises team efficiency and was created and developed with our legacy in mind. Attacks and defenders working side by side.

  "Due to the origin of the fighting style attackers are informally known as Harriers whilst defenders are called Cluders. You will be taught the basics of both arts after which you will specialise in whichever one you lean towards. Any questions?"

  "Which are you, Uncle Richard?" Valerian could not help but ask.

  "I am an expert at both but I usually act as a cluder. Anything else?"

  Valerian thought a little before asking, stroking his chin in a manner that nearly made the stern warrior chuckle. "Uncle Richard, you mentioned that the Fighting Arts of Harry and Clude are developed from and can maximise our clan's legacy. Elder Foreson also mentioned that with my strength I probably possess the clan legacy but I still don't know what the clan legacy is."

  "I see..." Richard said his soft voice. It only took him a second to make a decision and it was very dramatic too.

  His entire form twitched, convulsed and then expanded right before Valerian's stunned eyes. Richard who was naturally two metres tall shot up till he was a little over three meters tall. He did not just grow taller. That same multiplicative factor was applied to every aspect of his body be it width or musculature. His skin became a steely grey and hair turned into quill-like bristles. Large steel spikes even shot out from his shoulders, elbows, knuckles, heels and knees.

  If he looked dangerous before, he now looked like a terror no one would like to meet on a dark night. Valerian did not have to be told to know that this form had increased his power by a large margin. Strangely though his armour stayed on perfectly. Gauntlets, greaves, breastplate, nothing was broken. In fact, it looked like it had become part of him.

  "This is the Steel Monolith transformation", the giant announced "It is our clan's top blood legacy. It appears in eight out ten clan members with innate metal attributes. There are some who go as far as to call this our true forms. It gives us incredibly strong, dense, durable bodies. Even in my normal form, I am able to put out a little over fifty tonnes per arm
. The transformation quadruples my strength and increases my speed by fifteen percent. My defence becomes so great that steel shatters when it strikes me".

  Valerian was stunned. "Y-your armour?" he blurted out.

  "A special design from the clan's artificers to account for our legacy".

  Valerian looked up to the three meters tall giant in front of him stars shining in his eyes. "Uncle Richard, you are so cool! How come I never knew about this stuff? How did we get such a cool transformation?"

  Richard shifted uneasily, uncomfortable with both the adoration being shown and the follow-up questions. He thought it was stupid that Valerian had been sheltered from this for so long but he held his tongue. It had not been his decision to make but the magistrate's. So instead of answering the question, he reverted to normal and he diverted the conversation.

  "You should understand what legacies really are", he told his nephew. "They are inheritances or endowments. The important things handed down in martial families from generation to generation. There are two types of legacies; material and blood legacies. The cultivation methods, secret arts even the fighting arts of Harry and Clude as well as legacy equipment like my armour are considered material legacies. Basically, they are physical things the clan accumulates, develops or gains that are passed down.

  "Blood legacies are different. They are passed down the family's bloodline itself. Only by being born into that family would a person have access to these legacies. Our Steelborn clan has two. The Steel Monolith Transformation and the Stormhawk's Wings. The first I have shown you, the second, however, I do not possess as it only appears in those who have the innate wind attribute and at a far lower frequency than the first. We are the only clan in the viscounty to have two blood legacies".