My confused hesitation is broken by an abrupt pulse of mana from Sagaryn that flings me against the wall of the training hall. I try to continue cycling mana through my body, but I notice that the pulse disrupted my internal flow. I pick myself off the ground and pull ChaCha off my back setting myself in a defensive stance as I circle the professor. After a few seconds, I’m able to get my mana under control again and I prepare myself mentally to launch an offensive. I dash forward moving with the flow of mana and bring my monk’s spade down in a crashing blow—at the last second I see Sagaryn’s palm surrounded by a deep purple mana as he moves to block my strike.
Unexpectedly, my blade comes to a complete stop as soon as it makes contact with his palm and the continued inertia of my body hurts my right shoulder. I try to hop back and regroup before the professor is able to launch a counterattack, but ChaLong’s blade is locked in Sagaryn’s vice grip. I struggle for a second to pull back, but he uses my momentum against me and pulls me into his other waiting palm. Even though he didn’t apply mana to this palm it strikes me in my solar plexus and leaves me on the ground wheezing. The whole fight took a total of ten seconds, and I was defeated with one attack.
My wheezing is cut off by Sagaryn as he drops my monk’s spade next to me. “You actually did better than I was expecting, believe it or not. Most of the time students panic when I disrupt their mana, but you approached that logically and assumed a defensive stance while your flow recovered.”
He looks at me breathing heavily on the ground before he continues. “Well that was the only thing you did right, but it showed me where your primary weaknesses are and I can work with that. Also don’t be too disappointed, Camden, I am a Low Tier Five individual.”
He walks away after dropping that bombshell. I always thought his class was more focused on the accumulation and expansion of knowledge, but even a non-combat class could wipe the floor of just about anyone if it were to reach Tier Five. Slowly, I am able to pull myself up to my hands and knees, and the wheezing comes to a gradual end as well. I finally take a second to look around the room and see Sagaryn sitting nonchallantly in the corner at a desk made of mana as he takes notes in a small journal that looks brand new. I get up and make my way to him before he closes the journal and tosses it my way.
“This is your new exercise and meditation routine. You will do this for two months exactly as I’ve written. Only by following this routine strictly will you see any improvement. At the end of the two months you will fight in a duel against one of our more promising Tier One disciples. If you lose, you will lose your status as a core disciple and you will lose all the benefits I’ve seen you come to enjoy.” He pauses for a second before he shakes his head. “Of course, no matter what the weapon will stay in your possession as you are a bonded pair. We aren’t that cruel.”
After that he dismisses me to my pavilion to continue my training, and I’m ordered to finish my day with meditation. The day passes by quickly as I struggle through my new training routine, which heavily favors evasive maneuvers and agility training—both of which are things I’ve truthfully ignored until now in my training.
The part of the day I’ve been waiting for finally comes and it’s time to brew myself a little tea and send all of these treasured herbs to my new friend, ChaCha. I attempt to re-form the connection with ChaLong and he responds much faster this time—I can only imagine his excitement far exceeds my own.
[Is it finally time? You make me pick out all of these herbs and then I just have to sit here all day dreaming about finally getting them planted in my Spirit Space.]
[Alright ChaCha, take a deep breath. First, help me harvest a little bit of the Serene Bloom Moss and the Dragonroot Vine so I can make a tea with them for my meditation. Then you can have the rest as long as you promise to give me some when I need it.]
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The little dragon’s impatience radiates through the connection. [Yeah, yeah, whatever. For the Serene Bloom Moss cut off the last inch and a half of the moss from the right side. That side is ready to harvest and it doesn’t have any root system that I would be able to plant anyway. For the Dragonroot Vine you should harvest the top three buds, cutting it about a fingernail’s width below that third bud. This isn’t the most potent part of the herb, but harvesting any more than that right now could kill the herb outright.]
I do as instructed and secure myself the few pieces of spirit herbs in two separate mana jars that were left in my meditation space by Dross—most likely at the request of Sagaryn. Based on what I’ve read and some information Sagaryn mentioned earlier, even this small amount of spirit herbs should last me a few days when being blended into a tea. The mana in them is too potent for me right now to take too large of a serving.
I turn my attention back to the weapon spirit. [Okay ChaCha, the rest of these herbs are for your use. How do I transport these into your Spirit Space?]
Silence ensues for a few seconds. [Umm. I don’t actually know…]
Are you serious! He’s been throwing a fit about how long he’s had to wait for these spirit herbs and he doesn’t even know how to get access to them? Okay, so it seems like we will have to do a little trial and error to figure this out. The first thing we try is laying the herbs on the blade of the monk’s spade and waiting a few seconds, to no avail. We try holding ChaCha over the herbs again as I funnel mana into the weapon and with that he is only able to identify them.
After another hour of fruitless attempts I stab the blade into the moss out of frustration, immediately regretting it as I might have damaged the only herb meant for me, but to my surprise the herb vanishes as if it was never there.
[ChaCh, did it work?]
[OH EM GEE! My first herb! Yes it worked, I just need to plant them now and I should see some improvements to my mana over the next couple days.]
[Okay, I’m going to send the last two right now so be ready.]
Just like the first time, the next two herbs quickly disappear from in front of me and ChaLong confirms that he has them. After a few seconds I feel excitement through the connection. [Firstly, thank you Cam. I really appreciate you. Secondly, don’t bother me for the next few hours… I have a garden to get started.]
I feel the connection between us quickly sever and silence surrounds me for a few seconds before I get up and begin preparing the tea blend as the weapon spirit instructed. From the two herbs’ small harvest I was able to put together eight servings—which according to ChaLong should help with meditation and mana flow.
I fill up my teapot with water and pour one of the servings into the infuser. I quickly begin fluctuating mana through my meridians and activate Tea Service. As soon as the mana responds to my intention, my ears start ringing with System notifications.
[Tea Service: Level 2]
[Tea Service: Level 3]
The two quick levels surprise me. I’ve been trying to grow my skills using common mana teas or spirit herbs, without receiving any benefits. It just looks like the wall in growing my skills have been due to the quality of materials being utilized. I pour the rich gold liquid into the cup in front of me and its strong herbaceous smell wafts around the small meditation chamber. I lift the hot liquid to my lips and as the first drop touches my tongue my mana explodes out. The flow of mana running through my body threatens to burst my pathways and meridians apart and I am forced to focus on my meditation technique as much as possible to retain any semblance of sanity.
The world fades as my attention is devoutly given to managing my mana and time loses all structure. I’m not sure if it’s hours or days that pass before I feel the heat radiating through my body cool off. As my eyes open, the first thing my senses notice is the horrendous smell surrounding my body and the dried puddle of blood sitting beneath me. Although I only took a single sip of tea, all of the liquid either was absorbed or evaporated as both the cup and the pot sit there bone dry.
I quickly notice how much purer my mana is now, and it seems to flow so much easier through my pathways. Then the world goes black as I pass out from exhaustion.
