Upon entering my study I sat in my boosted chair while Rafael sat cross-legged to the side of the room waiting for me to say something. “sigh Rafael how would we continue with today's training?” He looks surprised at what I just said, probably imagining I would just take the rest of the day to relax in recuperation for tomorrows undoubtful hell. “ well I wouldn’t advise any more physical exertion for a while but I can walk you through the QI apprentice stage” I gesture for him to continue and so he asks for me to come and sit in front of him to which I comply. “ The QI apprentice stage has 10 levels, 1st being the Qi core which is located just below the belly button and it consists of activating your core and producing your first amount of Qi from there, it is like using a new limb or muscle you have to constantly use it and eventually draw QI from your core to other points of your body these points make up levels 2-10.” “ Is there any specific order to where you should link up first or not?” “ Not a specified order but there is a general order to do things, first you start with drawing QI to your heart this will make the later stages easier as your Qi will travel through your blood streams throughout your body, next is your brain so your can get a better understanding of what QI is inside you. After that It is lungs and your digestion organs to help improve your body constitution. Next is the arms followed by the hands or the legs followed by the feet It doesn’t matter which order you do these but what should always remain last and usually the point where lesser people falter is the 5 senses, only after supplying Qi to enhance all 5 senses can you be considered a true level 1 Teacher.” I sat quietly trying to digest the information he just told me, then I tried to feel for the QI core he told me of, I had only just started meditation when Rafael grabs my attention. “ It is nearly impossible to activate your QI core through meditation alone, the best you can do is rest so that tomorrow when we are training you might be able open it them but any earlier is a lost cause” Well there goes my planning for the rest of the day, since I've got nothing else to do I’ll probably just walk through the city but I still have one more question” I’ve read that the mana teacher progression is quite similar what can you tell me about it?” “Well as you might know upon the age of 12 we are able to start training our mana, it has a similar progression to the QI levels but the mana core is located on the opposite side of the chest to your heart and after opening your core the progression is exactly the same as Qi being through the heart and then the brain and so on.” “I think I've got the hang of it but what is the difference between the different levels of mastery in QI and mana? “Both are split into teacher, master and grand-master any further than that is beyond my expertise. and they are both measured in efficiency, teacher is 0%-50%, master is 50%-90% and grand master is the full 100%. I myself am only at roughly 65% mastery of QI and 30% mana mastery.” “Can you explain what efficiency mastery means?” “It is different for mana and QI, QI is internal energy drawn from the core while mana is ambient energy drawn from outside the body into the core, it is different to use either one of them efficiently. With QI the core is like a muscle the more you work it the more QI your body holds so while everybody starts with a different amount of QI we can all train to gain more. the matter of efficiency is how well we draw the QI from the core at the beginning most people are able to utilize 10% of the QI from their core with the rest of it being lost in the process being dissipated into your body. “ “That doesn’t really make much sense can’t you explain it a bit better?” shooting my best puppy eyed look at him hoping to get a bit of a clue of what he just said. “Okay if a fat person and a fit person work out until they drop the unfit person will drop quicker, if you compare that to QI once you open your core you are the fat person not able to utilize that energy in the best way being used on weak muscles, while someone in the grand-master realm is the fit person able to utilize their body to the upmost efficiency, it is the same with mana except the energy is external and a lot harder to control and travels in its own veins. ” “I see”. I take a couple minuets to digest all this information then glance at the clock. 10:30, seeing the time I motion to stand up and Rafael follows and raises a question of where we’re going “ We’re going into the city. ”