Chapter 324 - Long Awaited Skill

Okay, so Qi, Reivyn thought, getting comfortable sitting on his bed. I’ve only used it twice, both in precarious combat situations. I didn’t actively use it, though. It was more like I unleashed it, and it did its own thing.

Now that I was able to release it more consciously, maybe I can finally do something about figuring this thing out.

Reivyn’s Qi was like a ball of potent energy sitting in his dantian, his abdomen just below his navel. His Mana Core was similar, but it was more central in his torso, above his navel. His Mana Channels connected to his Mana Core and spread all throughout his body, but none of those channels actually connected to his Qi. They simply looped around it.

When Reivyn released his Qi, the energy didn’t follow any kind of patterns or channels like his Mana. Instead it just invaded his whole body like a tsunami. The effect was instantaneous and incredibly stressful, as evidenced by his System Notification.

My Mana Channels are metaphysical. They’re not really there inside my body. If I cut myself open, I wouldn’t be able to see or inspect them. I imagine my Qi is similar, but on a different layer. Like my body is the ground floor, my Mana is on the second floor, and my Qi is on the third floor or basement. Looking down from a top-down view, they would all appear to take up the same space, but looking at it from a different angle, they don’t actually interact with each other despite being housed together.

That analogy made perfect sense to Reivyn. It accurately described his Mana, and since his Qi was just another form of energy, one made of Mana and Stamina combined, it seemed obvious it functioned the same way.

Even the creation of Qi involves circulating my Mana and Stamina combination through my Mana Channels. Maybe that’s something like taking the stairs or equivalent. As soon as it becomes Qi, its no longer bound by the Mana Channels.

Now, my Mana Channels are the infrastructure within which my Mana travels on its “floor.” Right now, there’s no infrastructure for my Qi to follow. So how do I build that infrastructure?

There was nothing to it but to try various things. If Xudrid was still around, he could have consulted the Cultivator, but he was on his own. Then again, if their Cultivation Techniques were Class Skills granted by the System, that meant their creation was not the work of the Cultivator Classers, so maybe Xudrid wouldn’t actually know either way.

It was useless to continue down that path of thought, though, so Reivyn just got to work.

First things first: Prodding the energy to actively use it.

Reivyn’s consciousness descended into himself. He couldn’t use his Qi the same way he instinctively used his Mana or Stamina. The past two times he had used it, he had been hyper focused and emotionally stressed.

He attempted to steer his emotions toward the franticness of his two encounters. He envisioned the fights, the desperation. His heartbeat sped up, and he could feel minute traces of adrenaline seep into his muscles. He felt primed and ready to spring into action at any moment. His body was like a coiled spring, though he remained relaxed in his Meditation.

His Mana was like a muscle he could mentally flex, and his Stamina was similar, though it was automated through his use of his muscles and Skills. He concentrated and focused his intent on his Qi Core. He concentrated on the familiar feeling he had experienced the previous two times, trying to find said muscle to flex.

He fumbled about for several minutes before he felt a trace. It was like he grasped a thread, and he followed it into the dark recesses of his body. He had traversed this path before, though, and the closer he got to his destination, the more distinct the feeling got.

Eventually, he felt a sort of mental flex, and the Qi roared out of its container, flooding his body.

His muscles clenched, and his veins were prominent against his skin as his body locked up. The past two times he had done this, he had been in the middle of combat, a full-body exercise. This time, he was seated in a meditative pose. His body turned into a steel statue. He was unable to move an inch as his Qi barreled through his body.

Reivyn fought to calm his emotions down and get his heart rate under control. The harder he fought, though, the more his body clenched. He quickly abandoned the forceful method, and turned his mind blank, completely letting go.

The Qi continued to ravage through his body, but it was no longer bursting forth in a torrent. The Qi that was out of his core quickly burned away, and in only a few seconds, his body collapsed, going completely limp. He rolled over and retched, spitting up blood onto the ground next to his bed.

Ok~ay, I guess I can call that a success? Reivyn darkly chuckled to himself. At least I’ve figured out how to trigger it at will.

Reivyn wiped the blood from his lips and returned to his seated position.

No more of that. At least not until I’ve built the roads for it to follow. It was like a river flooding: powerful, but destructive. Now I just have to figure out how to build the roads.

His first thought was to try and build some sort of Mana meridian. He took pure, non-aspected Mana and manipulated it into tiny tunnels through his body, connecting directly to his Qi Core. Or at least, that was his intention. Upon inspecting the first thread, he could see that the thread passed through where his Qi Core was, but it didn’t interact with it.

Right, different floors. So if Pure Mana can’t be used, what can? Qi is made up of Mana and Stamina, so do I need to build these roads with Qi and Stamina? Like when I try to create new Qi, but instead of circulating it through my Mana Channels, I pull it out of the Channels and make new ones? Well, let’s try it.

Reivyn went through the exercise of combining his Mana and Stamina and created a little ball of energy inside his Mana Core. He attempted to move it, but it just wanted to travel down his Mana Channel. No matter how he manipulated the energy, it just wanted to stay within the confines of the Mana Channels.

Reivyn frowned in thought. He needed to get the energy out of the Mana Core without sending it down the Mana Channels, so he did the first thing that came to mind. He pricked a small hole, large enough for the energy to pass through, into his Mana Core.

Immediately it was like a vacuum seal had been destroyed. All of the Mana, including his new energy, was being sucked toward the hole. Only Reivyn’s iron will clamping down on his Mana prevented all of his Mana from being expelled from his core. He quickly repaired the hole with his Mana, sweat beading his forehead at the effort.

Okay, that didn’t work. He sat and contemplated the situation for a moment. Maybe if I do it like this…

Reivyn took inspiration from the many Dungeons he had run. Instead of piercing a hole, he wrapped his proto-Qi energy in a bubble of Mana and pushed it toward the outside. The edge expanded out of the core while the interior remained to block the rest of his Mana from escaping. It was still attached to the outer edge of his Mana Core.

Reivyn detached the bubble from the outside of his core, but he was immediately beset with the same crisis. His bubble tried to evaporate away, and it took all of his concentration to keep it intact. There was no chance of moving it toward his Qi Core. He quickly reattached it to the outer edge of his Mana Core, and the sensation disappeared.

Okay, so instead of trying to move it in a boat, I need to build a bridge.

He gathered more Mana and sent it to his bubble. He elongated the bubble, creating a tunnel attached at one end to his Mana Core, and he moved it along until he had created a bridge to his Qi Core. He felt a thrill at the success and moved the proto-Qi to his Qi Core at last.

The proto-Qi energy was not Qi. It did not enter his Qi Core. It was more like the material that created the shell of his Qi Core, containing the Qi. He couldn’t interact with that material through his own will, but he could attach the proto-Qi to it. He could freely move the energy about, either holding it in place like a little bump on his core, or he could integrate it into the shell evenly, thickening it marginally.

His goal wasn’t to strengthen his Qi Core, but Reivyn noted that it was something to remember if he ever did need to in the future.

He combined some more Mana and Stamina and shifted it along his new bridge to his Qi Core. He bundled all of the proto-Qi together, turning it into a thin hose and began to push it away from his Qi Core.

He felt a searing pain in his abdomen as his new Qi meridian bore a hole through his metaphysical body. It was unobstructed by organs or Mana Channels, though, so he could freely direct its movement.

As he stretched the meridian further and further, it grew increasingly more difficult to maintain control of the energy. It wasn’t like previously when it tried to escape into a vacuum, though. It twisted and writhed against his control, attempting to flail about wildly within his body. He instinctively knew that if he allowed it, it was lacerate his insides and cause serious damage he would need to take the time to heal.

He kept his willpower focused on his proto-Qi. The most difficult part to control was the tip, as it wanted to flail about like a whip, but the meridians already laid in place needed some of his focus to remain still as well. The other parts already built wanted to burst apart or collapse in on itself. He had to alternate keeping pressure on the outside and inside of his new Qi meridian.

He had only siphoned 10 Mana and Stamina points from his pool, but it was only enough for a fraction of a fraction of an inch. He had been so focused on the process, he hadn’t realized he was focusing on a micro level. He siphoned more and more Mana and Stamina into the proto-Qi for his building material.

Just holding it in his Mana Core, ready to be used, didn’t take any additional concentration, so he gathered 1,000 points each in one go.

Over the next several hours, Reivyn concentrated on extending his meridian in a loop around his torso. He extended the meridian all the way to the edge of his torso before bending it up above his heart and lungs, reversing the direction to the other side of his body, up and over his organs, and back down to reattach to his Qi Core from the opposite side.

His 1,000 proto-energy was fully used up before he reached the end, so he needed to siphon another several hundred points from his pools as he worked.

Once completed with that, he could feel that his “technique” was only half finished. He knew that he needed to create another loop on the bottom half of his torso, creating a figure-eight loop to complete the technique.

He continued building his Qi-roads, sprouting another meridian parallel to the first one, but he turned it down toward his pelvis this time. He dumped another 1,300 Mana and Stamina into the  construction before it was complete.

As soon as he attached the second meridian back to his Qi Core, his body shook, and he felt more than heard a deep gong going off within his body. His Qi was still dormant within his Qi Core, not moving along his new Meridians, but that was expected. His Mana didn’t automatically travel along his Mana Channels without his direction, either.

Reivyn’s body was aching, his face was soaked with sweat that he hadn’t noticed pouring out of his brown until now, but he could tell that he was still not finished. He couldn’t relax just yet, or all of the proto-Qi meridians would dissipate and return to their base states as Mana and Stamina in his pools.

He had one final task.

Shifting his mentality, he once more flexed his Qi muscle. He didn’t need to concentrate nearly as hard as last time, or delve as deep into his emotions. It came much more naturally to him now that he had done it on purpose before.

Reivyn held his breath as he awaited to pain, but it never came. He watched with his Divine Sense as his Qi roared forthe, following the paths he had created. His Qi rushed through his first meridian, up and around his torso before spilling back into his Qi Core.

That wasn’t the end, though. It continued on into the second meridian, traveling down and around once more to complete a full figure-eight loop. A current was created within his Qi Core, keeping the Qi moving along his meridians. The Qi spilling back into his Core from the second meridian pooled together into the center of his core again, though.

His entire Qi pool made the loop once, as that had been all Reivyn had done. He had basically just pulsed his Qi, and it had done its job on its own.

He paid attention to his body as his Qi rushed through his new meridians. He felt his torso strengthen a fraction of what happened when he flooded his body, but only along the lines of the meridians and the surrounding areas of his body. It wasn’t even enough to reach his internal organs.

Luckily, though, there was no stress put on his body from the Qi pulse.

Once the entirety of his Qi pool completed the cycle, Reivyn’s Divine Sense saw his new meridians and Qi flash in what would have been a blinding light, and he felt his body settle. The Mana and Stamina he had used to build the meridians evaporated back into their base components, and Reivyn was about to sigh in defeat.

But then he noticed it. The Qi meridians were still in place. It took his Mana and Stamina mixed together to build the roads, but once he finalized the structure by pulsing his Qi, it became permanent without having to maintain it with his Pools. He had briefly despaired that it would take the entirety of his Stamina and Mana pools to create anything worthwhile, but this meant it would be possible.

His meridians were still made up of the same type of energy, but it no longer needed his pools to maintain it. He didn’t understand the mechanism behind it, but after a second of thought, it kind of made sense.

After all, the shell containing my Qi, making up my Qi Core, isn’t made up of Qi or proto-Qi from my pools.

Reivyn shrugged his shoulders and just accepted it. It was a mystery that he might be able to solve one day, but it really didn’t matter to him at the moment. All that mattered was that it worked and it wasn’t going to cripple his Mana and Stamina pools.

Reivyn focused his attention on the System Notification blinking in the corner of his vision.

[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Basic Qi Cultivation Technique: Common Grade]
[Class Skill. Choose a Class Skill to replace]
[Magic Spells (216)]
[Deconstruct (103)]
[Will of the Realm (99)]
[Elemental Weapon (166)]

Hmm… Reivyn stroked his chin in contemplation at the choices. I don’t really need Elemental Weapon anymore. I can basically do it on its own without the Skill these days.

With his choice made, he mentally made his selection. His Elemental Weapon Skill was removed from his active Class Skills and replaced with Basic Qi Cultivation (1).

Reivyn threw a quick punch, effortlessly wrapping the blow in Fire Mana.

[New Skill Evolution!]
[Class Skill Elemental Weapon (166) has transformed into a General Skill!]
[Tier 4:]
[Elemental Weapon (0 -> 49)]

Reivyn blinked in surprise at the unexpected Notification.

Huh, I wasn’t expecting that. Wait! Was that what was needed? Just to use the Skill effortlessly with it unequipped as a Class Skill? Has keeping it in my active Class Skills been holding me back this whole time?!

Reivyn rolled his eyes at his own misstep. His own drive had been holding him back on that front. Who knows how long it’s been since using that Skill had become instinctual.

He shook his head and returned his focus back to his Qi meridians.

The next step will be to expand the new Qi channels along my extremities. I’ll need to loop them down my arms, each finger, my neck up into my head, and my legs, feet, and toes. I still have a long way to go.

He glanced at the time in his Status. It was already almost time for everyone to wake up for the morning of the next day.

But not right now, he thought with a wry smile.

Reivyn stood up and stretched. His body had kinks all along his muscles like he had been sleeping in a terrible position all night, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. He sighed as he changed into a new outfit. He still had his morning calisthenics and training to do, so it didn’t make any sense to take a full bath before getting soaked in sweat once more, but he woul at least be presentable.

Despite his high Vitality ensuring he could go days without sleep and be fine, he had a bone-deep weariness in his body.

No time to catch a quick nap or anything. I’ll just grab a bite to eat, do the morning training, and then I’ll spend the rest of the day resting. I’ll need my energy to alter this new Skill into something useful.