Chapter 88

Lykan

Legacies

The world came to life with a stark reality. The first thing he noticed was that his senses were somehow clearer. His understanding of the different particles of energy in the room were heightened to a point that almost caused him to wince out. It was the same wince one might have when they walk out into a full noon day sun after being caught in a dark room for hours practicing a particularly trying technique.

For Lykan his mind was alive and awake with new sensations. His mind was mapping the different impulses even without his eyes open. So that when he opened his eyes, he now saw the elements of the training room around him for what they were, mere illusions.

The Titan instructor was little more than layers of woven beams of light. A quick glance around the room showed that the lights began from tiny points all over the room that converged into key points to form the illusion of a three-dimensional figure before him. This caused the question of the laser beams that burnt his food. A quick test revealed that the laser was a highly compressed beam that came from the back wall, so that it seemed to be in line with the Titan’s eye. Truly remarkable.

For a moment Lykan felt cheated, that he was being trained by this clearly fake apparition. For a moment he wanted to leave, with his newly increased senses he could clearly make out not one but four doors all around the room. There was the one that felt like it was the one he came in from. Then there were three others that were all hidden by the same optical illusions. Realizing the doors were there, just hidden from his eyesight made this whole process a bit easier to stomach. The question was, should he leave now that he realized this was a trick, or should he continue?

He sat there in the meditation pose going through his breathing counts. Then with mechanical ease and fluidity he got up and moved into his walking breaths after one hundred simple breaths. For a moment he felt how light he was, how light and graceful his entire body felt and concluded at that very moment. He realized that he had stumbled onto a secret training lair of some kind. One that apparently could only tell that he was here, not who he was. This was likely why the instructor seemed so alien. It also explained why a Titan would wish to train him in a form of power that was clearly a secret of some kind. The truth was, he was never being trained willingly at all. This room, just like the cleaning machines on the floors above all worked on an impulse. An impulse that Lykan provided now. Something that he didn’t have as a kid, as he had spent many hours in the catacombs above and never had the machines come to life before.

When he thought about it, the reason for his sudden acceptance here became readily apparent as he drew in a breath. Qi. Qi was the reason he was now able to move about this facility. He could also feel with his mind the way the room slowly made a constant pull of Qi from him. Something that was then circulated out into the room below and then used to feed the whole facility. These were of course thoughts and ideas that he had earlier, but now he had definitive proof. His newly enhanced mind allowed him to perceive and interpret the strings of energy around him in ways he never thought would be possible.

With just the realization of his newly enhanced senses so many other things began to make sense. There was of course his innate ability to understand magic and grab the weaves out from people. Back when he was still able to manipulate such energies. He had always had a legacy of some sort. Someone in his past must have made it to the third tier before and unlocked such a trait. Meaning that when he chose the same trait his ability to use and focus his mind was twice that of what he had previously. He idly wondered when the next evolutionary path would be, as this was the first one, he was aware of. The fact that he hadn’t read anything about the evolutions meant either the benefits to family lineages was a secret, or not many people got to the third echelon and lived to tell the tale. After thinking on it, he realized it was like a little of both, with the first option being the most influential. If other families found out that a rival house and all their progeny would have a specific set of traits, that could prove costly in a war. As it meant that if anyone went to war against that house, they would have to get every man, woman, child, and bastard child of the line. That was the only way to ensure a powerful enemy wouldn’t come from the shadows. The only way to prevent such a travesty was of course to keep the whole thing a secret. To make it so no one knew or cared that you existed, to hide in plain sight.

Thinking about this Lykan wondered if his own father had this gift, or if it was something passed down from his mother. Thinking back, it was clear that his father had some type of special traits that were hard to pin down. Even now thinking about his father caused a somewhat blur in his mind. He knew it had been seven years since he last saw the man, but the image of the man should be somewhat clearer. Yet, even when he was with the high wood elves his memories of his father always seemed to be shrouded by light.

A second’s pause caused a moment of realization. My father used magic on me to conceal his true form.

Thinking back through his memories, he could clearly see the influence of magic at work. The only problem was, he didn’t know why? What did it all mean? The man had clearly been a father, or a father figure to him. He also clearly looked like Lykan. Though thinking back on it now, that appearance was clearly one of magic. But why?

So many questions filled his mind that he had a hard time keeping up with his running. As he made his paces around the room, he saw the exit doors and realized that leaving the training facility now would be so easy. For days he had wished for just such a moment, but now that he could easily leave seemingly whenever he wanted to it all seemed pointless. He was here to learn, and he was learning. Had it not been for this instruction, he would have never developed a core, never learned to breath in Qi. He would have also never learned that Qi could be used just like mana to implement spells. Or at least that is what he called the practice. Though he knew he might need to come up with a different term. Spells were for mana, and generally happened outside the body. Qi on the other hand was internal and happened within the confines of his body. The wording should be something different, maybe techniques? He pondered, as he then dropped to his push-ups.

His whole mind came to life, suddenly able to work with his full 27 in Intelligence quite easily. In fact, he almost wondered if most of his Intelligence had gone unused over the past few years. There were so many things his new mind was telling him about the world around him. He then wondered if Intelligence was the Attribute that most influenced his Psionic capabilities? Or whether it was Power? Thinking on it, Psionics seemed to be an advanced mind capability. This meant that at the very least Intelligence had to be a part of its usage. But the only problem was, what could Psionics do?

After some time of contemplation, being stuck in repetitive motions will do that, Lykan seemed to be able to make a few correlations of facts. At least from the facts that he seemed to have on hand. The first was that Qi involved the body. Second, Psionics involved the mind. This also meant that mana seemed to involve the soul. The fact that he had been cut off from his mana source and able to still live implied that this might not be the case as he wasn’t sure if he could truly exist without a soul. But rather that for the time being he would place the third category as a soul well until a better term came about. Many professors often used the term soul to describe the separate incorporeal sphere where mana came from as a soul and given that he had nothing to refute this claim now he decided to keep with this analogy for now.

So, mind, body, and soul. Each had their own different forms of power. Now, what did that mean? What exactly could Psionics do? Thinking back, he wondered if it had something to do with his ability to write runes. Apparently, it was a rare discipline that very few could manage. In fact, only he and Aren were able to write runes from their whole company of soldiers. Did this mean that Aren was a Psionic as well? If so, then maybe the initial trait of being a Psionic isn’t as rare as Lykan originally thought. But if it was more widespread than originally thought, then why wouldn’t there be more knowledge about rune writes? Unless…

Lykan’s train of thought was cut off by the next set of instructions. Which Lykan again was curious how they were written in the language of the high wood elves.

Initial Training Scenario complete to satisfactory levels. Now moving on to Basic Training Scenario.

A wave of confusion washed over Lykan as he felt both relieved and confused. He was relieved that he had in fact completed the first training scenario, as to be honest the repetitive nature of everything had been getting old for a while, but now he felt he was going to begin challenging his body even more.

Assume the meditation pose.

Then just as quickly as it began, Lykan let out a sigh of defeat as he was back to the basic stance. With an audible huff he dropped to the ground and assumed his now perfected meditation pose. Once he was seated, his Titan instructor nodded with clear satisfaction. Then the next set of instructions came, which caused Lykan to pause in confusion.

Oscillate your core.

Individually he knew what all three words presented meant. But together the words seemed to be complete gibberish. Oscillate? That implied that one could vibrate or move in some way? Did that mean that his core could be moved? If so, then how?

So many thoughts went through his mind, but his newly enhanced mind seemed to help dissect the problem and break it down to more manageable components. There were different strings that seemed to feed into his core that seemed to attach themselves to his body, thus keeping the core secure in one place. But a quick glance from his mind showed that the cords were not necessary. In fact, thinking about the way he often used qi and improved his core, the tiny strands were only getting in the way of how smooth the sphere was. Oddly enough it seemed that the threads were not of qi, which was why his Qi was able to easily bypass everything. Instead, he found that the bonds that held the core in place were ones that he had added subconsciously with his mind. Thinking back, he remembered wanting the core to remain stationary, while he tried desperately to move the torrents of qi faster and faster in his body. With a moment of clarity, his newly enhanced mind picked out that the energy used to bind the core in place was not qi but was something different. Something that he had seen before.

It took a moment, for him to make the connection, and when he finally did, he felt so stupid for missing the connection. The energy strands that bound the core in place were none other than the same energy strands he would use to write and infuse runes. This revelation caused a cascade effect of thoughts and possibilities to form in his mind. First and chief among the new thoughts was that he could use his Pisonic abilities in tangent with his qi. This was both a relief. A relief that he didn’t kill himself through inadvertent use of two opposing energy forms like qi and Mana had been. But it also meant that if given enough time to practice he might be able to strengthen his Qi with the strands of Psionic energy, something he felt he should have a name for if only to keep his mental thoughts of Psionic energy to be more concise. But that was all beside the point. What mattered now was that he broke apart the bands of Psionic energy that held his core in place.

As soon as he did, his core dropped to the bottom of his gut causing an almost involuntary reaction to need to relieve himself. It took a moment, but with focus and more effort than he cared to admit he managed to raise the core back to where it had rested originally. Only now did he realize why everything had been coming so easily for him. He had cheated. At least his mind had allowed him to cheat by holding his core in place with Psionic bands so he could focus on just circulating Qi throughout his body. If he had to do both circulate Qi and stabilize his core, he felt it would have been nearly impossible. Still, he had more to do.

By focusing inward with his Qi Control, he moved the core into place. Then, just as before he began circulating the qi. Qi that had fallen like a million lost snowflakes that were now being sucked back up into the relentless winds of a blizzard. Once he was back to the basics without cheating, he focused on the message that seemed to be flashing angrily before him.

Oscillate your core.