“I do not have karmic powers so it never occurred to me to ask and never occurred to them to tell me.” replied Kush to the flabbergasted woman sitting across from him. Tara though surprised saw the point in doing this as well. Judging from Kush’s training and skill and from his duel with her, he didn’t seem like one of those geniuses she thought he was, they must have used some other alchemical mixtures and means to enhance his power to such a level (she thought, she also assumed much of what he told her about his training to be an exaggeration). Considering that is the case, telling him about his opponents may not be useful considering the variety in Karmic powers, since he had only one tool in his shed, which was a hammer (actually an axe).

But she still thought that he should know the people he might face in life as a cultivator and she was willing to teach him since he helped free her friend’s country “Ok so there are seven levels of Karmic power starting from the lowest they are Novitiate, Apprentice, Docent, Adept, Expert, Guru and Sage. A sage is like the supreme deity on our planet, generally reaching there requires close to unlimited training with your Karmic power and talent, with each level of progress one’s Karmic power a cultivator will unlock a skill. Taking me as an example, I am an adept so I have unlocked 4 skills from my weapon, each more terrifying than the previous. Power of each skill is amplified by the mana one possesses. For example, if the ability of skill is ‘x’ and one can control a ‘y’ amount of mana through their Karmic power then the output is say a function of ‘x’ and ‘y’ viz. f(x, y). This relation can be directly proportional when in lower level of Karmic power skills and in higher levels can be exponential or some other relation as well. So if one is able to apply say ‘2y’ amount of mana in their attacks a simple cutting motion can become a country toppling power. This is ofcourse true for general Karmic power, there are some weird Karmic powers which lie beyond the realms of logic and even novitiates with these Karmic powers can overpower people who are much further along”

“But how am I going to be able to be able to differentiate between them? Long back my father just said once that I could face people who used weapons which were white and yellow. He never said why, but he said I could”

“Ok so an obvious way of identifying the level of one’s Karmic power is the colour of their physical manifestation”

Kush tilted his head to the side showing that he didn’t understand her statement.

Amused by the innocent expression on his face she said “A Novitiate’s physical manifestation is salt white in colour, an Apprentice’s manifestation would be sapphire yellow, a Docent’s would be Ruby Red, an Adept would manifest it as Aquamarine Blue, an Expert would manifest his Karmic power as Onyx Black, a Guru would as Silver Silver and finally the pinnacle of all existences on Bhoomi a Sage would manifest it as Gold Gold”

Kush’s eyes widened, his parents never manifested their Karmic power but Parth he met in Kashi the other day was already a Sage? Fucking hell!!! You do read about Gaandiva in ancient records but this is just ridiculous.

Looking at Kush’s expressions Tara was curious and asked “What happened?”

He answered saying “Nothing much. You know how everybody has mana veins in their body and they are in an ethereal plane, all the mana you collect goes into the Shunya, a point behind the navel where a sphere is formed like a gaseous cloud. This sphere is in turn connected to 7 chakra point starting from Mula Chakra and then Swadhi Chakra all the way to the Sahasra Chakra point via chakra veins. The sphere acts like a compensator storing away mana as you as you slowly convert the mana to different types of energy and store in the Chakras. I can visualise them, but I still don’t understand how you guys use Karmic power. I mean I know it exists but that’s it.”

Tara nodded, she realised how it was difficult for a person to understand something which was a really common thing to do example you can say to a new born baby that all you have to do is put one step in front of the other so on and voila you walk but a new will always take its time to walk. These he was asking was something even a kid who has not yet tread the path of cultivation wouldn’t ask. She started formulating her words to make it easier to understand “It’s a bit of a stretch to call Shunya a sphere, it’s more like a dot, most people don’t even study it unless they enter advanced classes to do research work and stuff and it is also mostly mages who are interested it and what’s with the compensator stuff? hehe”

Kush furrowed his brows in perplexed at the statement, that was one of the first thing his mother taught him in his theory classes and what he could see inside him was by no chance a dot. He was about to ask a question when Tara continued with her explanation and Kush thought it best to drop it.

“I will tell theoretically how common knowledge is taught in the universities and let’s hope you catch on. Our body is divided into planes the physical plane is what we see, feel and smell. Your organs, muscles, sinews, bones etc. constitute the physical plane is also where your characteristic power manifests. They could be:

Strength – represented by a tattoo of an Elephant Speed - represented by a tattoo of a Cheetah Regen - represented by a tattoo of a Lizard Toughness - represented by a tattoo of a rhino Agility - represented by a tattoo of a Humming bird Magic Regen - represented by a tattoo of a Star

The tattoo manifest on the right arm” she said showing her forearm. Right above her wrist he could see the picture of a humming bird which stretched across the width of her arm. It was not a big secret since people can readily see it on her wrist.

“The physical plane contains the physical pain, hunger, thirst etc. things which are needed to survive. The characteristic power that manifests in the physical plane are powered by mana”

Kush waited again for her to complete and asked “The list that you mentioned does not contain, ‘Endurance’…”

She interrupted him once again and said “Again with the esoteric terms, ‘Endurance’, ‘Ether’ and ‘Shunya’. You don’t even know the how the seven chakras are classified nor do you know the colour physical manifestation for Karmic power. This is ridiculous!! Who taught you all this?”

Kush felt like one of dunce students scolded by his genius classmate when they were teamed up for a group project. He didn’t say anything but Tara seeing his sorry expression calmed down and said “Phew…” she let a breath out and said “Endurance is no longer considered a characteristic strength as per current education system. There has not been a recorded case of endurance in the past few centuries and also cause people with endurance are basically normal people with a little more pain bearing capacity. It is the same as not having one anyway”

Kush tried not to show his feelings on his face after hearing her evaluation and simply nodded. Tara being a perceptive woman saw the change in his expression and said “I am sorry for saying those things, it was your parents who taught you those things right? But you should join a formal institute, else your knowledge will be limited like it is now”

Kush simply gave a nod since he didn’t want to argue with her. Seeing him not responding to her kind advice she simply continued from where she had left off “The second plane is the mana plane. Mana as you may know is the most easily convertible form of energy and can be transmitted with most ease since our veins are conductor of mana and most objects in the world conduct mana through them. The structure of the mana plane is as you told before but the way it connects the other two planes is unknown to all. People still theorize how it happens and become researchers to identify how they connect, cause if they could find out they may be able to find out how to enhance the link between the planes”

Tara then said “The third plane is the one you are more interested in, the soul plane; this houses your Karmic Powers. It is theorized that the colour of the Karmic power is judged by attainment of level of soul. But basically it depends on how proficient you are with your Karmic power. Some geniuses I know need not even practice for a few months before moving from Novitiate to Apprentice whereas some simply keep on repeating the exercises for a few years before they can make that jump. With each step the barrier/ difference between levels increases by ten fold. Meaning one Apprentice can fight 10 Novitiates, 1 Docents can fight 100 Apprentices and so on. But I have seen some monstrous exceptions to these rules” then she looked at him for a short while and thought to herself “You for example are the biggest exceptions of them all”

Kush then went on to ask “While we are at it can you tell me how the 7 Chakras are classified as well?”

Tara let out a breath and said “The 7 Chakra points in your body are located in your mana plane, they are like small pouches of mana built up from the base of spine to the top of your head/ temple. They are:

Mula: Located at the base of spine Svadhi: Located on the spine parallel to Belly button Manipura: Located on the spine upper abdomen Anahata: Located on the Heart Visudha: Located on the Throat Ajna: Located Between the eye Sahasra: Located on the top of the temple

These are the supreme modes of power in this world. Many people if they live long enough they are able to break through Mula Chakra point and some geniuses are able to break through Svadhi Chakra point. The further along one goes rarer do you find people breaking through”

Kush asked her again “Why did you call these supreme modes of power?”

Tara looked into the distance her eyes losing focus “Most people think that Karmic power is the strongest power a person possesses; I am of the same school of thought. But I have heard that stronger people depend more on their Characteristic power instead and Karmic power is only used as a means of displaying their characteristic power”

Kush was perplexed at her answer, which Tara understood since she started talking about characteristic power when he asked about Chakra points so she said “As per literature, the each of the first six chakra points give the person power equal to or more than characteristic power. They are:

Mula gives Regeneration power Svadhi gives strength Manipura gives Speed Anahata gives Magic Regeneration Visudha gives Toughness Ajna gives Agility

Again the degree of power enhancement is dependent on amount of mana you put in. But for some reason the enhancement given by chakra points is more than enhancement given by characteristic power and as the mana you inject increases the difference becomes clearer as well”

Kush like a polite student nodded at each of lessons, though he knew things like ‘some reason’ and ‘in short’ were vastly shortening the complexity of things and giving him the basics of the subject. He then asked her the next question “What about the 7th Chakra point?”

Tara said shrugged at the question “Like I said, it very rare for anyone to breakthrough chakra points beyond Mula and there has never been anyone in history to breakthrough to the Sahasra chakra point, but as per Manusmriti, the oldest records regarding life it says that Sahasra chakra point enhances the endurance. But people don’t really believe it cause the difficulty of breaking through Sahasra chakra point is so difficult that historically no one has been able to do it so Endurance the worst characteristic power cannot be the benefit from it. People believe that all the characteristics power from the previous six chakra point will be enhanced even further”

Kush “…”

He paused for a couple of minutes and asked “Is there a way of knowing how much progress person has made in chakra points”

Tara shrugged again “Strong people are able to invade your mana space forcefully with their mana and know how much you have broken through at that point you cannot hide anything from them”

Kush once again asked “What about the cursed power which Brutus had?”

Tara once again shrugged “How am I supposed to know? The horde of researchers which Sylvie hired weren’t able to identify the cursed power which he possessed. Those powers of his were impossible to understand. Even the pool he came out of was researched for 12 years and nothing to show for it”

It had been more than an hour since they started their conversation. Tara patiently answered all of Kush’s questions and Kush learned a lot during the duration. He was really grateful for what she had done for him and for no expectations nonetheless. Kush smiled and said “Thank you for all you have taught me. I owe you one”

A smile more beautiful than that of an angel appeared on her face, this mesmerized his senses as he wanted to kiss and hold her even more, but he stayed his hand. He had his pride and would only approach her if he won the bet which they made.

Kush then said “Lets meet same time tomorrow”

Tara lifted herself up from her place on the ground and made her way toward the gate outside. Kush eyes simply followed her ass as it made its way out of the room.