Chapter 002

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‘ ‘ for thoughts.

“ “ for speech.

* * for actions.

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In a flash two years passed and Leofric was five years old. His tutelage had been continuing under Labasi for the past two years. He was almost four feet tall (1.2 m) and his hair cascaded curling into ringlets framing his slightly rounded face and barely covering his ears. He was a bit chubby; however at his age no one would call him fat.

He was sitting cross legged with his eyes closed, in the enclosed courtyard with his teacher Labasi. As the sun was rising, Labasi opened his eyes and gently awoke his pupil from his meditative trance. There was a puzzled expression on Leofric’s face; as for the past two years his daily routine was to meditate till breakfast. However, his teacher had woken him up from his trance early.

Labasi: “Today, I will teach you a series of rituals to lay the foundation for a warrior’s future training by clearing and strengthening the meridian channels!”

Leofric: “Teacher, can’t I directly begin with the warrior’s body training?”

Labasi: “Exercising too much before strengthening the meridian channels actually limits future growth. The body strengthening exercise also hardens the meridian channels, limiting their future capacity! Therefore it is a must to stimulate the meridian channels before we start strengthening your body.”

Labasi: “Now these sets of rituals contain a series of five exercises to be performed at sunrise and sunset, after meditation. You will begin with performing one repetition of each exercise, and slowly increase it by one every sixth day till you can do 108 repetitions in approximately two years. You should then continue with these 108 repetitions every day, twice a day. I will demonstrate the first ritual.”

Leofric nodded, somewhat unenthusiastically, and his teacher Labasi took a pose with his arms outstretched sideways at shoulder level with his legs and back straight, like a spinning top from left to right. Seeing Leofric’s unenthusiastic expression, he gave a throaty chuckle.

Labasi: “Don’t appear so worried, these rituals are not very taxing if you go step by step. However, training it diligently in this manner will give benefit you significantly as long as you are below Expert level (Rank 5). Now watch closely as I will demonstrate the four other rituals…”

>>

Another couple of years passed in a flash and Leofric was seven years old. He was four and half feet tall (1.37 m). In the enclosed courtyard it was just sunrise, and Leofric was performing a series of exercises. He was erect with arms outstretched, horizontal with the shoulders spinning rapidly from left to right. After every thirty spins, he took a small break and then repeated it again.

After 108 repetitions of spinning, he laid full length on the grass, placing his hands flat down alongside of the hips. He then raised his feet until the legs were straight up and extended it back a bit over the body toward his head, keeping the knees straight. He held this position for a moment or two and then slowly lowered his feet to the ground.

In this manner, he completed 108 repetitions of five different rituals. It took around one hour and 45 minutes to complete it. By the time Leofric was done, he was covered in a thin layer of sweat… yet he didn’t seem tired at all. Once he was done he shouted an order. An attendant immediately entered with a towel, a bucket of lukewarm water and a change of clothes and left bowing.

Leofric undressed and soaked the towel in the bucket of water. He then gently wiped of the sweat from his body with the wet towel and changed into a fresh set of clothes. He wasn’t too shy undressing and dressing in front of his teacher. This was because, from an early age he was used to having servants dress and undress him, like most noble children. Once he was dressed, he asked his teacher.

Leofric: “Teacher, I have been doing 108 repetitions of these five rituals for a couple of months now. I have noticed very slow improvements in my memorizing abilities, but aren’t these exercises meant to stimulate my meridians?”

Labasi: *smiling* “Good job noticing it. Once these rituals have reached the peak of 108 repetitions, it starts to reinforce the mind in addition to the meridians. Having a sharp decisive mind lacking hesitation is essential! That is why you must be diligent and practice these rituals daily till you become an Expert (rank 5)! After becoming an Expert, these rituals do not provide any further benefits. Although the improvement you felt is a combination of diligent meditation and these five rituals.”

Leofric: “Yes teacher! Does it become so for meditation too?”

Labasi: “No! Meditation is one exercise which retains its importance even to sages!”

After hearing the enthusiastic affirmative of his student, Labasi gave a pleased nod. He liked Leofric’s aptitude to learn and practice diligently. Although he complained at the onset, but once he began an exercise he was determined to follow through.

Labasi: “If you continue the present regime of strengthening your soul through meditation and stimulating your greater meridians through the rituals, you will have the spiritual force of a Journeyman (rank 4) Magus in a little less than ten years!”

Leofric: “Teacher what is spiritual force?”

Labasi: “Spiritual force is the power stored in the upper Dantian. Among mortals, only magi can indirectly harness spiritual force through their spells! That is why they have so much destructive potential at the same rank. Once a practitioner steps into the rank of sages, they can access this spiritual force at will. This is what results in devastating attacks by warrior sages, which even most Grandmaster (Rank 7) magi cannot match!”

Leofric: ‘So magi have more destructive potential in the beginning only. A sage with direct access to spiritual force is on a different level altogether.’

Leofric: “Teacher what about Expert (rank 5) and beyond?”

Labasi: “The first bottleneck practitioners, whether they are Warriors or Magi, face is at the peak of the Expert level. At that point these exercises at best will help you maintain your condition at the bottleneck. Beyond that in addition to hard-work, innate talent and insight is also essential!”

Leofric: “First bottleneck? Then what is the second bottleneck, teacher?”

Labasi: “The second bottleneck is at the peak of the Grandmaster level (Rank 7). Breaking through this bottleneck to the realm of sages is far more difficult. Remember, the difference in power increases more at the higher ranks. While a Novice (Rank 1) Warrior can lift and throw a 50kg boulder (roughly 110 pounds) with one arm, and an Apprentice (Rank 2) Warrior can lift and throw around 80kg boulder (roughly 170 pounds) with one arm. What is the difference?”

Leofric: “30kg. (roughly 60 pounds)”

Labasi: “Now I am a Master Warrior (Rank 6). How much do you think I can lift and throw using one arm?”

Leofric had a stronger than average grasp of arithmetic, with Labasi’s coaching for the past four years. An Apprentice warrior could lift around 1.6 times what a Novice warrior could, though the absolute difference was only 30 kg. He applied the same ratio and estimated the arm strength of a Master Warrior. He even doubled the answer for good measure before replying.

Leofric: “Around 1000 kg (roughly 2200 pounds)?”

Labasi: “Wrong. A Master Warrior like me can lift and throw boulders weighing around 1500 kg (roughly 3300 pounds) if they utilize their Qi. And a Grandmaster warrior (Rank 7) can lift about 3500 kg (7700 pounds) with the aid of Qi!”

Leofric: “Teacher, what is Qi?”

Labasi: “Just like magi use mageforce for devastating spells; warriors use Qi for amazing feats of strength and agility! When you train as a warrior, you have to reach the peak of Expert (Rank 4) level without using your Qi!”

Leofirc was a bit confused, and his face was fixed in concentration, with folds of skin between his eyebrows. If Qi could help Master and Grandmaster Warriors perform such amazing feats of strength, shouldn’t training it from the start be more beneficial?

Leofric: “Teacher why should I refrain from training Qi till I am an Expert Warrior? Shouldn’t training it from an early stage be more beneficial?”

Labasi: “While in most cases it is true, Qi is an exception. Unless someone has some inborn defect in their body, every human has the potential to be a Journeyman Warrior with just physical strength alone! The stronger the base physical body, the more potential and explosive power Qi has.”

Labasi: “Furthermore, once you start training and using Qi as a warrior, you will use a very small amount of Qi subconsciously for all physical actions. This will prevent you from approaching and surpassing the limits of your body’s pure physical strength!”

Labasi: “So if you start training Qi before you reach the peak of your physical mortal body, it will actually stunt your body’s future physical strength! Had I known this when I started Qi training as a Warrior, I would have already been a Grandmaster (Rank 7) Warrior!”

Labasi: *regretful sigh* “It is too late for me now. Short of a miracle or extremely rare treasures, I cannot achieve Grandmaster as a warrior as I have had almost no improvements in my physical strength or Qi in the past 50 years! My best hope is to be a Grandmaster is to now focus on magic. My talent is mediocre though, as I am still a Master level expert after three centuries of practice!”

Leofric: “Three centuries? How long can I live? Is it possible to reach the level of an Expert Warrior or above with physical strength alone?”

Hearing his student’s speculation, Labasi gave a guffawing laugh.

Labasi: “Your natural lifespan depends on your rank as a warrior or magus. A peasant who doesn’t cultivate at all can live around 50 – 60 years. An Expert (Rank 4) warrior can live around two hundred years, whereas a magus of the same rank can live around three centuries. If you manage to become a grandmaster warrior, you can live for four hundred years, and a grandmaster magus can live up to six hundred years! And sages can live for thousands of years…”

Labasi: “As for improving physical strength above Expert tier; for humans it is very rare. However, there have been a few incredibly gifted individuals throughout history who have reached Expert level and in some cases Master level with physical strength alone! For magical beasts it’s different…”

Leofric: “Magical Beasts, teacher?”

Labasi: “Oh, I have been neglecting that part of your education. No matter, we will begin it from tomorrow. But just as an example, there is a species of magical Beast known as the Rampaging Minotaur. After it goes berserk and exhausts all its internal energy, it is still as strong as most Rank 6 magical beasts and can kill most Master Warriors.”

Leofric imagined the tyrannical and overbearing might of the Rampaging Minotaur. Even after its Internal Energy was exhausted, it could give a good fight to Master rank warriors! But then he noticed that his teacher had mentioned internal energy instead of Qi.

Leofric: “Teacher don’t magical beasts have Qi? You said about exhausting their internal energy.”

Labasi: “Magical beasts are different. They don’t have Qi or Elemental Energy like warriors and magi. Instead all their talents are fueled by internal energy and their magic core. Some magical beasts have warrior like abilities and some have abilities very similar to spells. Furthermore, truly powerful magical beasts have unique fantastic innate abilities called Divine abilities which are different from both Warrior techniques and magus spells!”

Labasi: “These magic cores are very valuable. It can enhance the speed of training on an elemental path and can also be used to make many useful items. That is enough about magical beasts at the moment. Now, I will give you a book with a series of six exercises, each having ten levels.”

He then pulled out a small notebook, and handed it over to his student. His student flipped through the notebook to find meticulous handwritten illustrations and descriptions describing ten levels of each of six exercises.

Labasi: “These series of exercise are common and very well known, unlike the five rituals for strengthening your meridians. However even though they are slower compared to other methods available, this builds a robust foundation and is most suitable to start practicing from a young age!”

The exercises were push-ups, squats, pull-ups, leg-raises, bridges and handstand push-ups. The section on push-ups for example went right from using both arms in a standing posture and a wall as a support in the initial stages. In the final stages, one had to perform push-ups using one finger of one arm only, with no other support except the legs!

Labasi: “I will demonstrate the first level of all the six exercises after a little while. You should start with one set of 10 repetitions on the first day, and you should end up with a set of thousand repetitions before you attempt the next level. If you are diligent and stick with the schedule in the book, you will become a Journeyman (rank 4) warrior in under a decade just based on physical strength alone!”

Leofric: “Teacher, what should I do if I want to attempt to increase my physical strength further?

Labasi: “Hmm, you could get the help of at least a Journeyman Earth magus and do these series of exercises in the spell gravitational field. There are also enchanted formations, powered by magicite crystals, which replicate the effect of gravitational field. If both are not available, you could always resort to wearing heavily weighted clothes.”

Leofric: “What if I can perform 1000 repetitions the last level of these exercises while wearing weighted clothes in a strong gravitational field before I start cultivating my Qi?”

Labasi had an amused expression on his face as his student excitedly speculated on his future training.

Labasi: “If you can manage that in a sufficiently strong gravity Field you have a small chance to end up as a Master Warrior without using Qi! However, it is not very feasible if you plan to become a magus also.”

Leofric: “Why Teacher?”

Labasi: “As a magus you will spend a lot of time refining mageforce from elemental energy during meditation, and also practice spells till you exhaust yourself to become more powerful. With that, training up to a Journeyman Warrior (Rank 4) with pure physical strength will take enough of your time and effort.”

His student had a disappointed expression on his face. However, he continued to explain why it would be futile.

Labasi: “If you have enough time for such intense physical training, that would mean that you lack aptitude to become a magus as magical progress is a lot more time intensive than martial progress of the same rank. Besides even if you have the time, it would require plenty of special elixirs to strengthen your body after the Journeyman level and extreme perseverance.”

Leofric wanted to become as strong as possible, as his education under Labasi had ensured that he knew about the ruthless reality of the world. The world was a brutal place and strength reigned supreme. To enforce one’s authority and demand respect, one should have the power to back it up!

Most nobles therefore placed a priority on cultivation of their descendants. If not anything, such strength acted as deterrence to the threat of slaughtered and enslaved by rivals! Strong cultivators could be invited and retained in the clan. But to gain the locality of even a Master (Rank 6) cultivator like Labasi was difficult as there is always a chance of betrayal. Blood is thicker than water after all!

He still remembered the reverent gaze his teacher had when he mentioned sages for the first time. Sages could live thousands of years and could fly! Their strength was immeasurable. A single punch from a warrior Sage could reduce a small hill to a pile of dust! A magus Sage could cast spells which could devastate a whole city!

Such overbearing might and tyrannical power was what Leofric wanted to obtain. But he knew that it won’t be achievable without hard-work and dedication. Becoming a sage through path of the magi was exponentially more difficult than becoming a sage through the path of the warrior.

To break through the second bottleneck (at Grandmaster Rank 7) and becoming a sage required every advantage possible! If he could break through the first bottleneck (at Journeyman Rank 4) as a warrior with physical strength alone, then chances of breaking through the second bottleneck would increase rapidly. He was interrupted from his thoughts by the stern voice of his teacher.

Labasi: “Even Rank 4 is very far away for you at the moment. Now, carefully observe the first level of the exercises to temper your body and repeat ten repetitions of each.”

>>

Leofric Mah Wayne was 8 years old and dressed in flowing blue robes belted around his waist, sitting in the Dining Hall having breakfast along with his parents and teacher. However, his build resembled a healthy pre-teen who was about eleven years old; He had a height of four feet and nine inches (145 cm).

His appetite on the other hand exceeded that of a normal adult! He was wolfing down buttered croissants with freshly roasted sausages like a starving wolf. His appetite had increased exponentially in the past few years. He was not fat however, and faint outline of muscular cuts was visible on his arm.

His face still retained some baby fat, but sharp features were just starting to become visible. His curly brown hair was cut short and oiled back in futile attempts to make it straight. His golden yellow eyes showed sharpness beyond his years, and his originally pale skin was tanned a light olive.

He hated being dressed like a noble and preferred his simple training attire of tunic and breeches. It was far more comfortable and practical, for one. It was the day where he would accompany his father and teacher to the clan headquarters. Every year, children from the Wayne clan who were eight years old would gather at the headquarters and get tested for their aptitude to become a magus.

The clan placed deep importance on nurturing talent. For this reason, every child of the clan was evaluated for their talent in magic from both the Mah and Vainy branches. Generally, those from the Mah branch were more magically inclined; though there was a history of quite a few exceptions.

As he finished his breakfast, his parents and teacher appeared. He was about to burp in an undignified manner like a peasant, but restrained himself when he noticed them. Although he was well versed in etiquette, he found following it annoying. In his mind, once he was strong enough, no one would dare to utter any complain no matter how shoddy his etiquette appeared. Since he wasn’t strong enough for that, he had to reluctantly behave.

Goldyna: “Are you ready to leave, Leofric?”

Leofric: “Yes, honored mother.”

Goldyna: *rubbing his head* “No need to be so formal to me, Little Angel.”

Ealric:*grumbling* “You spoil him, dear wife. Remember to behave properly in front of rest of our clan, Leofric!”

Leofric: “Yes, honored father.”

Labasi: “Mistress, I take your leave. Master, young master; it is time for us to leave.”

Leofric: “Yes teacher. Why don’t you come to, mommy?”

Goldyna: “Someone needs to stay here to look after things, angel. It is only for a month. You will be back before you know it.”

Leofric: *sigh* “Goodbye, mommy.”

Ealric: “Goodbye, beloved wife.”

Goldyna: “Goodbye dear husband, and my little angel. Have a safe trip!”

After saying their goodbyes; Leofric, his father and his teacher left the estate in what looked like a small caravan. The three of them were in a horse drawn carriage in the center. They were surrounded by around thirty Journeyman Warriors, and followed by a few supply wagons. They made their way towards the Clan Headquarters. It was near the town of Spirittide, and the journey was estimated to take around a week.

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A/N and Explanations:

To summarize; till now three kinds of forces are introduced:

1) Qi, in the lower Dantian utilized by warriors. It is better to train this after pure physical training stops giving results (usually at the peak of Journeyman Warrior (Rank 4) )

2) Mageforce, in the central Dantian utilized by magi/mages (singular magus/mage).

3) Spiritual Force, in the upper Dantian which generally cannot be used directly by anyone at or below Grandmaster (Rank 7). The exception to this is magi. Their spells utilize a sliver of spiritual force indirectly.

Power level of mortals:

Rank 1 = Novice

Rank 2 = Apprentice

Rank 3 = Intermediate

Rank 4 = Journeyman

Rank 5 = Expert

Rank 6 = Master

Rank 7 = GrandMaster

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