EG Book 7 Chapter 2

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Progress goes pretty good! Still just barely ahead of my goal, so here’s another chapter.

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

After an hour nap, I was still alone, and it was still dark outside. A quick glance out of the window showed the party was starting to die down, as the majority of people were at most Condensation level gatherers, so they needed more than the three hours of sleep that I’d gotten. “Well, I’ve still got a bunch of time. Let’s do another Core Rune,” I said, then flinched as my center seemed to spasm. “Or not.” I frowned down at my chest. I sent my Aether into my storage ring, and looked over the Legacy again.

What should I look at now? I mused to myself as I poked through it. I guess back to the Gathering Technique Stones? I wonder what I could find in the Soul Strengthening level Knowledge Stone? I summoned the aforementioned Stone. This one was a deep purple. With a grin, I put it to my forehead and sent my Aether into it.

Again, I found myself in a mental projection. This time, though, there was a sitting room with two doors on the wall in front of me and one to either side. Two bookcases full of the jade tablets sat against the wall. I tried to step forward, but a wave of Aether swept over me. A few seconds of being judged by whatever Inscription was behind the Aether passed, and when I could see the room again everything was gone except a single tablet.

I carefully walked over to it. “A Primer on Advanced Gathering Tiers,” I read aloud the plaque underneath it. With a grin, I picked it up.

Spirit appeared in my mind. Well, Spirit as they were before they became Spirit. “Congratulations to you, my inheritor,” they said. “I knew that you would seek to grab all of the knowledge inherent in the Legacy, but what is within this area is beyond you. Knowing myself, though, I am sure that you will be unwilling to leave without any information. Thus, this primer. Soon you should be creating your Core, buttressed by the gains of the Tower of Trials. The initial few layers of your Core are key to your ability to successfully advance to Soul Opening. Each time you compress your Aether to crystallize it, you need to control how the layer forms, to prevent any imperfections as best you can.”

They took a deep breath, “At larger numbers of layers, you need to be creating the runic structures dictated by your cultivation technique, but do not be afraid to experiment. In the end, every path to the peak is unique, and no technique created by another will be perfect for you. While grinding away your advancement is painful, there is little permanent damage. More information is readily available in the Core Technique Stone.”

Spirit laughed, “But you are here for what comes next. Once you are ready, you will trigger the Tribulation, where the world will test your Core, your mind, your techniques, and, most importantly, your heart. Will you have the will to hold on and fight, or will your Core shatter under the judgement? The Tribulation will purify and correct any mistakes in your Core, and open your Soul Space.”

They shook their head. “I do not mean to minimize this. Less than a quarter of the people who attempt the Tribulation are successful at opening their Soul Space. I do not doubt, though, that anyone able to win my people’s Legacy will succeed. Upon opening your Soul Space, return to this Technique Stone for guidance on appropriate techniques. In general, though, you will begin by forming your Soul. Aether itself is insufficient, and must be condensed and purified to become Ashe. Similar to creating your Aether Pool, you will be enhancing your Soul Opening to allow for a larger storage. Only with sufficient stored Ashe can you change your spherical soul into a facsimile of your body.”

Spirit gestured at themself, “Once your Soul is Primed, you can begin working to perfectly copy yourself. The better the resonance, the easier the next step will be. To continue to advance, you must rip your Soul out of your Soul Space. This is the singularly most unpleasant experience you will ever encounter.” They shuddered. “Once separate, you will work to strengthen your Soul more, until it matches your physical body in capability. This is the stage that stymied all of the gatherers of the M’Zee for nearly two hundred years. It is only when conflict with the Harpies threatened us again that I experimented by absorbing my Soul back into my body.”

“It reset me back to the very beginning of Soul Forming, but I was stronger than I had been. In less than a decade, I had surpassed everyone else in strength. The war ended when I challenged the Harpy Queen to a duel, and destroyed her utterly. Others copied me, and we eventually found that a single reset still had a ceiling to the power you could gain. (Name) was the first to try a second merger, and then, twenty five years later, (Name2) performed a third. Each attempt was more difficult, each return to my previous height taking more Aether, more Ashe, more resources.”

“It was only with the final war that we discovered how to feel the fabric of the world. At the thinnest point, the Tower of Ascension was built. When you are ready, you will need to seek it out. Until then, good luck, and keep your people safe,” Spirit finished, before vanishing from in front of me. I was immediately kicked out of the Knowledge Stone, and unable to enter into it again.

“Well, that’s super important,” I said. “I need to tell Librarian Narwan soon.” I looked outside, but there wasn’t even a hint of the sun rising. “Later today, though.” I held the stone up in front of me, “You’re my ticket to even greater wealth, I think. Probably should trade being able to look into it for resources to push Jamila, Aleks, and everyone else still in Condensation to Core, and some more equipment? I don’t know.” I stuck the stone back into my ring.

After storing it, I stood up and did some jumping jacks before looking into ring again. Now what do I want to look at? Core level gathering techniques? Not really. I kinda want to learn what Librarian Narwan wants to teach us first. Maybe some attack or movement techniques? A Lightning-based movement technique should be faster than (Name) Northern Wind, though I doubt it’ll let me fly. Maybe there’s a Speed Aether that I can use for a technique?

I pulled out the Core level technique Knowledge Stone, then dove into it. As with the first one I’d examined, I found myself in a long hallway. “I want to look at Lightning based Movement Techniques,” I said aloud. The hallway rearranged itself, and I was suddenly at a door.

I reached out and grabbed the doorknob but found it locked. I couldn't let go, either. A tiny suction feeling came from my hand after a second, and I realized it was looking for Lightning Aether. I fed a tiny streamer into the knob. I felt a tumbler move, but it was still locked. My mind followed the Aether into the inner workings of the door, and I had to carefully maneuver it around an obstruction through the tiniest bit of feedback I could get from my Aether sense.

My Aether sense had become significantly sharper from my advancement to Seed Core, and I could vaguely tell what Aether was around me in a five meter bubble. By focusing, I could feel minor details. This let me guide the Aether through a challenging course of twists and turns. Twice I had to hold the Lightning off the sides of a section, as touching it caused shocks to hurt my hand. Finally, I flipped a fifth tumbler, and the door knob turned.

There was another hole I could put the Lightning Aether into, but I wasn’t fast enough. The door opened, and the testing apparatus vanished from my perceptions. “Well, I guess I got a good enough grade,” I grumbled, then shrugged. “Guess I got to work on fine Aether control still more. Let’s see what I can access now.” I stepped into the room.

There were hundreds of jade tablets here, each one a different technique. “Well, that’s awesome,” I said exuberantly, bouncing on my heels before rushing to read the plaques. “Floating Spark Movement Technique. Air with minor Lightning and Fire Elements, uses unpredictable movements to confuse enemies and close in for devastating melee attacks. Neat.” I nodded, then moved to the next one.

The first two dozen were in the same vein, different techniques to move in a battle. On closer inspection, I saw that the jade tablets themselves had a series of stars on them. The first I looked at, Floating Spark, had three stars, four stars, then two stars. As I moved farther into the room, the number of stars increased in all three sections, though some were lopsided. One technique, Lightning Flashes Through The Field, had nine stars on the first row, but only one in the second. The third row was seven stars, though.

I read the plaque, “Use Lightning Aether to explode forward, giving incredible acceleration and speed while limiting your movement to a straight line. Huh, so maybe the first row is speed or acceleration or how quickly the technique lets you move? The second row then could be maneuverability or control, I guess? Not sure what the third row of stars is.”

I paused for a minute, then spoke to the room, “I need a technique that’ll combine with Dancing Northern Wind to get a bit more speed in battle. (Name) Northern Wind is good enough, but I am starting to get eclipsed by some of my friends in speed, and I’d like to try to catch up.”

The room sparkled for a second, then all but six of the tablets vanished. The first one had two stars in all three rows, so I moved on. The rest were disappointing, until I got to the last one. Eight stars, eight stars, ten stars, the highest I’d seen yet. “Voltage Differential Nerve Induction Technique. Use Lightning and Reflex Aether to enhance your body, allowing for faster reactions and movement speed. Create voltage differential fields within your aura to allow for unpredictable and rapid direction changes and extreme straight line speed. Now, that looks awesome,” I exclaimed with a giant grin on my face.

I reached forward and picked it up. “Oh, that’s what the third star was,” I said, “compatibility with my current techniques. Light, this will be useful.” I glanced to the side, and suddenly an armchair appeared. I shrugged and sat. The jade tablet glowed like an iPad, and I found that I could swipe through the data on it. I looked at the very beginning, and saw, both in front of me and in my head, a teacher instructing the memory giver on the technique.

“Your nerves control your body,” the M’Zee said, “and only through enhancing them will you be able to react fast enough at the highest levels of combat. You do not need to worry about that, little seedling, but by increasing your reflexes, you will stay safer while hunting the low level Spirit Beasts your team is tasked with. Now, here are the main nerve pathways of your body.”

The teacher pulled down a rolled up drawing. The outline of a person was there, along with the brain and all the nerves extending from it. More organs were traced out but not filled in, along with the bones. I noticed a few things immediately. They only had one kidney, and the intestines were larger. I didn’t see anything that could be an appendix either. That was the limit of my biological knowledge, though, and I had absolutely no idea what might have been different about the brain or nerves.

The teacher then showed how to selectively enhance each nerve bundle, allowing for a faster movement of a specific limb. The limits here were fairly minor, with a ten percent increase in reaction speed before you’d start having to worry about tendon or muscle damage. “This technique is recommended for you, little spark, because of your near-perfect compatibility with Lightning,” the teacher explained. “You should ensure to learn a high-level Metal or Earth body strengthening technique if you truly wish to excel at it.”

I moved on, and found where a different teacher was explaining how to create what they called attraction locations. The memory giver was now in Foundation Core and thus had a sphere of nearly a hundred meters where they could express their Aether and will. “Huh,” I said when I realized that it was just electrostatic attraction moving their body. “That could work. The strength of the movement is much greater than I’d have thought it would be. Silly Aether, not following physical laws.”

The student was jumping around, shooting to their attraction locations at jaw dropping speeds. I could feel them running a Metal technique through their muscles and an Earth technique in their bones and tendons to deal with the shock of stopping. Good to know, I thought, either get my body strong enough to deal, or learn a better technique than the General Strengthening Technique. I guess that should be next.

In the middle of a jump, the teacher blasted the student with a Lightning Bolt. I, I mean the student, rolled to the side and leapt to their feet. “Good. You can use this technique because Lightning is so much weaker against you,” the teacher said. “Just as you use Lightning to leap between locations on the battlefield, so will Lightning attacks be diverted to either you or your attraction locations.”

“Teacher, what about my own attacks?” The student asked.

“Yours will not react to your technique,” they answered. “But even your allies will be affected. You must be aware of this. The Lightning Attraction Technique is extremely useful for quick, sudden movements, but it does have its downsides. Now, continue.”

The student created another attraction location, then jumped towards it with a thought. They saw the teacher creating another Lightning attack, and threw down a different attraction location nearby. Their movement curved, hitting a middle spot between the two locations. The teacher’s attack diverted away from them and went directly into the closest of the attraction locations to them. The teacher beamed at the student. “Excellent! Your battle awareness is superb. Just as the technique can pull attacks towards you, it can pull them away. We will continue to practice.”

The scene changed again. This time the memory giver was alone. They were at Complete Core, or nearby at least, but their focus was all internal. The runic structures for the Nerve Enhancement Technique and the Lightning Attraction Technique floated in and around them. “Oh!” I exclaimed again, “that’s how he combined them! By linking the Nerve Enhancement to the attraction points, you don’t have to create the internal voltage points. That’s so cool.”

I paused for a second. “I can combine this with the General Strengthening Technique too,” I said, my eyes going wide. “Wait, I need to look at all of my techniques with an eye for combinations. There are so many options.” I shook my head, “Though what is better, learning a new specialized technique or adapting one I’ve already learned? I don’t know. Let’s see what Librarian Narwan wants to teach us soon, and ask him and Knight Kaminski.”

The tablet went blank after that scene, but the knowledge was all implanted in my head. I stood, about to go look for another technique to learn, but my head started to hurt. I left the Knowledge Stone and massaged my temples. “Okay, gotta take a break before implanting more info in the noggin.” I glanced out the window, and saw that the sun was just starting to come up. “Yay, breakfast time.”