Blood creed

Volume 2

Visania The Royal school.

Chapter 1

Waking up in a strange bed I looked around to notice that I was in the same room I woke up the first day I came to lord Ling’s manor. The softness of the bed was unparalleled, soft yet comfortable. It made me want to remain on it for the longest possible time. But I don’t have time, I have much to learn now, a new goal, a new objective. I must learn magic, all of it and most of what I can. It is not power that I seek, it is knowledge.

“Remain where you are, child.” said the gentle voice of an old woman.

I turned around to see her, she was the same woman that I met the first day here… this feels like a déjà vu.

“Yes Mam,” I said then added, “Can I ask who are you, Mam?”

“I am the Ling house’s Health career, my Name is Shivana, nice to meet you.”

So a doctor of sorts…

“Thank you for taking care of me” I politely said

“That is my job, child. However it seems that you are a fond of sleep, you took three days to wake up from that incident… However I must strongly object on what you did last time, you almost died doing that idiotic stunt, though you managed to save the lady’s life you almost lost yours in the process…”

“Three days… Is the lady alright, however?”

“She is in perfect condition,” said the doctor “She even came and asked about your welfare a few times,” she said with a mischievous smile on her…

I don’t know why but something stirred inside me, having someone from the Ling house to actually care for my wellbeing is a feat that I should feel proud of, I am but an orphan…

“Tell me, child. What drove you to do what you did there?”

“What? To help the lady?” I said

She nodded

“It is gratitude,” I said

“How come? You risked your life for someone that you barely spoke too, barely talked too, not only once but twice. The one who should be grateful is not you but them… so how come you say it is gratitude?”

“You must know by now who I am, my lady. I am but an orphan child, not worth much within this growing world. ;y life is meager compared to the powers of the people around me, however, Lord Ling gave me a new life, a new purpose. He even gave me a hope toward something I sought, a promise to go to Visania, to learn… a wish that many have taken for granted, yet a far from reach dream of mine… he gave me what I wanted… and in his moment of despair, if I was not one to help then I have failed that man…”

“But you have yet to go there, what if the lord was lying? What if he never intended on taking you there? You risked your life for something that is not set in stone…”

“I don’t know what you are trying to do my lady but let's make one thing clear, I will forever be indebted to the lord, just him promising to send me to Visania is enough for me to risk my life for him for I have no value in the eyes of many but his…”

“A loyal child…” she said then stood up and left the room.

What was she trying to do? Her way of speech was like if she wanted me to not save the lord… as if she tried to probe me of my true thoughts, though I hid nothing from her I still felt like I was being interrogated than spoken to… strange.

I was dressed in different items of clothing, not my butler clothes but the white silky pajamas.

The same I was given that time, I took a look around and left the room soon after changing back to my old clothes that were near the bed. There was nothing worth doing there and no need to waste more time, three days of rest had made my body feel refreshed, any more and I will be just a lazy slob.

Once out, I looked around for one of three people, Master Shen, The Lord or Milenda. Any of them would be enough to fill me up on what happened and what I am to do next.

The first to meet was Melinda who was walking down the hallway. She looked at me like if she had seen me the first time

“You are awake?!” she said with a voice expressing worry more than surprise

“Yes, is there a problem?” I said

“Heh, the doctors actually said that you would remain in that state for few more days, I truly am surprised”

Doctors? There was only that woman… they must have brought in more to assist her… well no matter

“I am up and awake now, I guess I need to go back to training, I have much to learn…”

“Master Shen is in the courtyard. The Lord is not home yet, once he gets here I will tell him that you have awoken”

I gave her a slight bow after excusing myself, but before I could walk away I turned around and asked

“What about lady Akari? How is she faring?”

“She is doing quite well, the flame no longer welled up within her, her control is firmer than ever… boy whatever you did is nothing short of a miracle, that was a case of severe magical overload, she was not supposed to survive that… I am truly glad you managed to save Lord Ling’s only daughter… on his behalf I thank you” she said while giving a deep bow…

I felt awkward after that, I never was bowed to by anyone, all my life I was the one doing so, so seeing someone do it for me made me feel rather uncomfortable

“Please Melinda, that is nothing I owe them more than just that… it is alright”

I took the stairs and went down toward the courtyard where Master Shen was there.

I have been trying to contact Nocturne but it seems that he is unresponsive for the moment, I don’t know what happened but I kinda miss the creepy guy’s voice…

Once I was in the courtyard near the wooden logs I saw master then resting under the sun, with a round hat covering his face.

“Master Shen,” I said

He then slightly lifted his hat and glanced at me with one eye saying

“You are rather up early, good I was feeling bored, are you ready for your training?”

“Yes!” I said with all eagerness.

“Very well,” he said and he stood up.

“You seem to have had the gist of Honing, now we will begin with a similar practice, Strengthening”

“What is that?”

“it's rather simple, it is a part of honing too, the energy you use to strengthen the strand of grass and hone it at the same time, yet this time you use it on your body, the only difference is that you need to carefully strengthen your body so that you don’t shatter it.”

“How so?”

“Unlike honing where you reinforce and sharpen the tool your body is a more delicate matter, you need to understand it, strengthening an arm, for example, can make you punch through a steel door, yet overdo it and your arm will shatter like a piece of glass from the impact. It makes not only your blood vessels strong as steel your skin, muscles and everything becomes rock hard. if you make contact with something of similar density you might break your arm.”

“That doesn’t sound practical at all, I mean I could just use a tool, hone blades or strengthen clubs for combat if I ever need too.”

“One day you will find yourself without tools, and the only tool you will need to rely on is your own body, strengthening is needed for our next practice, I will teach you the Lotus martial art, it may sound girlish but believe me, it is an art derived from an ancient demon, it is strong beyond strength, and will need a body that can practice it.”

The prospects of learning a martial art almost made me salivate… I need this, no I want it!

“Alright, how do we strengthen?”

“don’t jump the wire, before strengthening you need something else. First, sit in this position,” he said as he sat down cross-legged with both arms on his knees.

It wasn’t that difficult but the restrains on me made it a bit uncomfortable. I almost forgot I had them…

“You are rather accustomed to the Limiter…this should make it very potent once you master the moves. Alright now, you do remember that breathing technique you use before you used Honing?”

I remembered my body being filled with energy whenever I took a deep breath with the intent to use that technique

“Yes, I do,”

“That is called assimilation, it has many names some even call it cultivation. The idea is that you will harness natural energy within your body and keep it inside you, it will help build up your body bit by bit.”

“what is the use of this technique?”

“It is simple, your body is made of flesh, assimilation makes your body soak in natural energy speeding up the build-up of tissue and reinforces them. This will be needed so that you can strengthen your body, let me give you an example, if you take your current body, it will be like a bottle of glass filled with small and unnoticeable defects, assimilation makes you reforge your body, but it is a long and arduous task, some people assimilate energy for years upon years to make themselves stronger, it can even elongate one’s lifespan.”

“Would this process help with clearing those small defects?” I asked

“Yes, not only that if mastered correctly it can remove impurities, and cleanse the body, even the smallest amounts of toxin within the body can be cleared. It reinforces, and strengthen the body from the smallest possible point, it is like building a house not with brick, but with sand, one spec at a time, until it becomes an immovable indestructible object.”

“Well this will probably take too much for me to start strengthening would it not?” I asked

“No, you don’t need to reach that stage to begin strengthening. Once you breathe in the natural energy it will immediately guide itself to the impurities within your body, once you reach a respectable level of purity then you will start training”

“How do you track this level then?”

“There are several ways, the first being that once you gain enough energy your body will go on a breakthrough. And believe me, you will know when that happens. The second way is using this.” he said as he grabbed a small jade medal. “Put this over your neck,” he said

Once I did it glowed a bit and turned dark like coal

“That is your body’s state, I am actually amazed that it is this bad… your body is filled with impurities, mostly due to your history as an orphan your environment wasn’t helping, you need food… a lot of it. As the nutrients within your body are sorely lacking. Your bones are fragile and will break if you try strengthening, hell I don’t even understand how you managed to hone with how much impurities you have in your body. The energy you circulate should dissipate before you exert it outwards… anyway, this medal will track your level. once you remove all the darkened stuff from it, it will glow in a pure green, once that is done it will turn dark again, that means that you have cleansed the first level.”

“Ah so once the first level is over it goes to another level, how many levels are there?”

“There are a total of ten levels, of purity. The purer your body is, the more energy you can harness, the more you can harness the stronger your body will become, the stronger it is the more powerful you become.”

“What level are you at master?” I asked with a bit of curiosity

“I stagnated at level seven, it is hard to break through the bottleneck to level eight, it should take me few years through,” he said a bit disappointed.

“Wow, this takes years?” I asked in surprise

“Only the later levels, the first three levels shouldn’t take even one year, the first level is the hardest and I need you to manage it before this month ends… you will need to eat more and train more, I will add some weight lifting to your training, you will need it to build muscle.”

“Why do I need to build muscle when if I assimilate my body becomes stronger?”

“Assimilation doesn’t make you stronger, it strengthens your body, and if you strengthen a weak body it still remains weak, if you strengthen a strong body it will become powerful. Eat more, train more and assimilate as much as you can, I will check up on you once you reach your first breakthrough, now start breathing in and circulating the energy within you as much as you can.” He said and left.

‘Well this shouldn’t be that hard’ I thought to myself.

Once I began breathing in the energy, I started noticing a few changes, especially after closing my eyes and using monochrome vision.

It was a strange thing, like my eyes removed themselves from my sockets and I was able to see myself from another point, a rush of powerful wind would drive itself from my nose and into my lungs, I was even able to track it, to see inside my body all the way to the smallest of veins, a small insignificant dark spec was linked to a vein within my body, the strang energy came in and pushed it toward a bloodstream, then a speck of gold took its place and fused to the tissue make in it tighten, this happened all over my body, not in one part but everywhere, on a small scale so small I found it amazing. Just being able to see these changes made me feel awe. It was wonderful, even mesmerizing to see a change at such a small level that I lost track of time.

Once I opened my eyes it was already night, and my body was feeling cold, not from the weather… I was soaking wet, like if I sweated a river.

The sweat however was… grassy, like fat melted out of my pores, it was disgusting.

I went straight for the showers to take a bath, and on the way, I saw that the medal was slightly glistening, it was less ‘black’ and more like bottle green, this was going to take time to make it shine, but I knew it would be worth it.

Once I cleaned up and left I heard a voice I actually missed

‘Basara’ said Nocturne

‘Where have you been?’ I asked before letting him finish.

‘Watching…’ he said

That sounded a bit creepy because I was just taking a shower so I missed the meaning behind his words…

‘I was watching you train and found the chance to tell you something.’

‘What is it?’ I asked

‘What is the road you will choose? The blade or that of magic?’ he asked

‘Why can’t I choose both?’ I said

‘To choose both is a greedy request, yet nevertheless, it will require discipline and a willpower like never before, so do you truly want to take the path of a mage and a warrior?’

‘If it means I get to learn many and different things, then yes, if I have the chance I will take it. to know is to live…’

‘Then so be it. Your lord will teach you how to wield magic, the swordmaster will teach you how to wield the blade, and I will teach you how to master them both… yet to do so you will need something first.’

‘What is that thing?’

‘Your cultivation technique is lackluster, it is of low efficiency, I can teach you a trick or two on how to harness Qi, into your body without the need to needlessly remain sitting, so that you may harness it, and train with it. reinforce your body while you strengthen your mind to learn magic, use them both to manage both… for that is why I am here, to make you a blade against the darkness…’

‘What darkness?’ I asked

‘You are not ready to know the dark. But it will come, and without a blade to cut through it, your world will share my old world’s fate…’

‘What do you mean by that nocturne?’

‘You remember our promise? I will tell you about me once you become strong enough. Today you earned the right to know a part of that knowledge… For I was once a human like you until I stumbled upon that book… it gave me power, knowledge, and strength to defeat my enemies, yet I did not use it well, I did not fight off the dark, and for that, I was trapped within it… and that is your fate, Basara… we are rarely given the luxury of choice when it best suits us, and you are now sharing my fate, you have one of two option, become strong enough to fend off the looming destruction, or wait for the devastation of this world along with me, inside this prison…’ said Nocturne

Words of a weight I had not the slightest idea about… but time would tell how Nocturne was right, and how I was too slow to understand…