Chapter 166

Lykan

The Phases of Air

To say that the training was grueling would be putting it lightly. There were extreme heat waves, followed immediately by fierce biting cold winds. Each wind Lykan was forced to stand through and endure. Midway through the training, despite being far removed from the worst of the elemental forces Brenna had to leave. This was fine, as it allowed Lykan to let the restraints go from his training. Her leaving allowed him to explore the full depths of what the room was trying to teach him.

Air was everything, able to meld with every element. Earth floated in the air, causing clouds and different hues to appear at night. Water melded with the air to form rain, snow, and hail. Then finally Fire formed with Air to be given life, shape, and scale. In all, Lykan realized that every element was enhanced by and influenced by Air.

Lykan also saw the way temperature influenced the different states and elements that were interacting with air. No water but extreme energy caused dry winds that felt like the would peel off the skin. With the addition of water to the heat, and it would create vapors and humidity, both of which could either work independently of each other. Or could work with the original energy to intensify the original gust of air.

From there he went on to understand the difference that was caused by the lack of heat. This was an odd concept at first, for heat was energy. Yet, some of the fiercest of winds were the ones that held not a speck of heat energy within them. At first Lykan had to rely upon the forces of water and earth to convey the power of his forms. This of course was a crutch that his instructor quickly disabused him of. While the use of water and earth particles to easily convey the energy of his qi was important, it was even more important to learn to do the actions the right way. The right way of course was being able to convey the temperature and speed without any element other than his chosen wind.

This took time and patience, two things Lykan had in spades.

By the time he had mastered the art of mimicking the power and presence of the two extreme forms of wind, his mastery over Qi Control and Qi Alter both improved.

(4) Qi Control: Sage -> (Maximum) (4) Qi Alter: Expert -> Sage

His mastery of Qi Control also opened new doors for him, as he once again learned two new powers. Or maybe learned is too strong of a word. Rather, realized that he already had learned the start of two new powers.

(4) Qi Control: (Maximum) (5) Pyrokinesis: Novice (5) Cryokinesis: Novice

The two powers were of course how to create flames and ice from using his will and mind alone. The two powers so perfectly matched what he had been doing to unlock the powers that he couldn’t help but feel that their listing was just an extension of what he already knew how to do, at least on an instinctive level.

It would have been nothing to stop there, and in fact most people would have stopped at the two breakthroughs. But Lykan was adamant that he would take full advantage of the opportunity that had been afforded him. This was but his third training room. Before without a cultivation unlocked many of the lessons provided were denied to him. This time however he noticed that there were many more avenues to continue his training on. He also didn’t know when he and Brenna would be able to find another one of these training rooms that were still intact. Focusing his mind, he began letting the lessons flow from one extreme to the next.

In the next he was the air, or rather he had to be like the air. He had to let the air pass through him, where he would add to it with his own Qi, then continue. This was the hardest lesson he had come across to date. The entire concept was foreign to him, but at the same time he found that he truly enjoyed pushing his mind and body to the extreme.

In the end he had to encapsulate two different and distinct actions in his mind. First, he had to be one with the wind, which meant his entire body had to be able to resonate with the current state of the wind. When the wind increased in intensity, so too did his own oscillating body. Then as the wind died down, so too would he have to slow down his body. All the while he would have to interact with and manipulate the wind that passed through him to do what he wanted. This was like spinning a children’s wheel about on an axis point.

From the outside, spinning a wheel faster and faster about an axis was the easiest way. But the method being taught to Lykan was to make him be part of the wheel and find a way to increase or adjust the speed and rotation of the wheel.

After a while Lykan realized his mistake. He wasn’t supposed to go incorporeal, but rather absorb the energy on one side of his body, while exerting it back out at an equal speed on the other side of his body. This was a long continuous process that took time, perseverance, and above all patience to complete.

Failure would happen when he failed to adjust to the changing wind speeds. If he absorbed too little of the wind, then it would start over. If he exerted too much energy on the wind that caused a disturbance in the air current, it would start over. If too much of his own body heat was bleed off into the wind, he would have to start over. If too much of his qi was captured by the wind he would have to start over.

It was only at the part where he realized all the different variables, that could lead to a restart of the scenario, that he finally realized what this field was testing. This was his test on how to blend in with the wind itself, how to mask his scent and presence from anyone who might be using the wind to help track him down. Once he realized the purpose of this trial, the motivation to continue became easier to find. The lesson itself was still nearly impossible to fully master. At least that is the way Lykan felt of his slow, lethargic pace through the whole scenario.

Yet, he was determined to give it his all. Finally, after days of training and focusing his mind and intention. He went through the entire training scenario. He flowed with the air on the way down to nothing. Then he waited as the wind picked up gradually, until it finally went to full speed. Then he once again managed to go through the process of the wind slowing back down. Over and over, for seven complete cycles. That was the number of times needed to complete the mastery of this aspect of the wind that he was learning.

Blessing Bestowed: Formless Presence Formless Presence: You have managed to learn to hide your presence from the world. Rewards: Your scent, thermal, and qi signatures are unable to be picked up by most mundane tracking methods.

That was what he got as a reward. Honestly, it didn’t seem like much, but to Lykan that was an immeasurable boon. This meant he could flee an adversary without fear of being tracked. That if he so chose, he could avoid conflict. It also meant that for the purposes of evasion he would soon be on a whole different level. He made a mental note to see if he could practice this further with Brenna. In particular, he wanted to test out this new aspect of his abilities once Brenna herself learned her own lessons.

Of course, the blessing wasn’t the only gain. This exercise also helped Lykan push his mind and body further in two other aspects of power.

(5) Phase Shift: Novice -> Beginner (4) Qi Absorption: Sage-> (Maximum)

The Phase Shift was itself a blessing. It helped him push his way through this process earlier, than he should have been able to. Then there was of course the process of pushing his Qi Absorption through the last threshold. This of course meant that he had unlocked two new additional powers.

(4) Qi Absorption: (Maximum) (5) Mind Obfuscation: Novice (5) Mind Blank: Novice

Both again were variations on the powers and ideas he had solidified in his own mind. Mind Obfuscation was of course a way to prevent others from latching onto his mind and finding him that way. Again, this was a power that he made a note that he would need to work on improving with Brenna. While he didn’t mind her reading his mind, the fact that his mind was open to reading did disturb him at a fundamental level.

Then there was the second power Mind Blank, which was an attack type of magic that directly targeted a mind. Though attack was likely too strong of a word. The attack would only stun the mind of whoever he targeted. As best as he could tell, it would be the equivalent of a mental forget me slap. The slap being strong enough to stun the targeted mind and make it forget what it had been thinking about.

To put it bluntly, these were interesting powers that he had unlocked.

He could also feel his mind and body coming close to passing into the next tier of power, the fifth tier. A tier of power that would cause a lot of changes to happen to him.

He knew this was an important Tier to achieve, as he could already feel the changes his body was going through in anticipation of the final breakthrough. His final breakthrough of course would only come once he had advanced Qi Alter to its (Maximum) stage or progression. Only then would he be able to unlock the fifth tier of personal evolution.

To this point he had well moved beyond the necessary boundaries with Attributes, and Skills. All of his skills were into the fifth tier, and some even entered into the sixth tier.

In fact, he had been so focused on his Power Attributes increasing that he almost failed to notice the changes that happened to many of his Qi based skills as well.

(6) Air Fluidity: Novice -> Adept (5) Qi Weaving: Expert -> Sage (5) Qi Sight: Sage -> (Maximum)

Air Fluidity went up by two ranks from Novice all the way to Adept. Meanwhile Qi Weaving increased to near the realm of mastery. While Qi Sight actually pushed through the fifth-tier boundary and unlocked two new sixth tier skills.

(5) Qi Sight: (Maximum) (6) Weather Sense: Novice (6) Mind Sense: Novice

Once again, these skills seemed to be in line with what he was doing, when he broke through the skill barrier. Weather Sense seemed to be a skill that would help him predict the ebbs and flows of air currents around him, making it so that his blending in with the wind would be more seamless the longer he practiced. The other skill Mind Sense again seemed to dovetail with his two mind powers he recently unlocked. The ones where he could sense minds that were actively scanning for his own mind. At least that was what he had gained from his brief scans and tests of the skill.

As usual the skills came with no real instructions. Rather they were just something that Lykan himself had to sort of figure out for his own. Luckily for him, he was more than capable of figuring out the initial intent behind most skills that he had received to this point.

With so many personal boundaries broken, and skills and abilities improved, Lykan was more motivated than ever to continue. He was so close to pushing his way into and through the fifth-tier barrier that he could almost taste his success. He was about to do just that, when he stopped to look at Brenna who was still kneeling silently in the corner of the circular training room. Apparently, she had come back in now that the howling winds had died down. Seeing her waiting patiently, the ravenous intent to continue was instantly quenched.

Lykan looked at her and was about to ask if she was ready. But she cut him off.

“Four Magical Ability levels, that resulted in four new Magical Abilities. Along with four total skill levels, resulting in two new skills.” She said as more of a statement than a question.

Hearing this, Lykan only nodded.

Lykan almost wanted to wince at just how little his training had ultimately been summarized down to. He had been close to not only a tier breakthrough, but also, he had learned so much about the air, the way it moved around him. The way he could use Air to interact with the other elements. He had been so close to so much, but ultimately, he decided that it would have been selfish to continue. At least it would have been selfish to continue without letting Brenna have her own chance.

Feeling defeated and a bit self-conscious about having hogged the training room for so long, he bowed to her and yielded the training room to her.

With this Brenna stood up and walked to the center of the training room. While Lykan dutifully took up his own spot at the far end of the room, right where Brenna had sat a moment before.

With Brenna at the center of the room, Lykan once again took over the role of translator.

“Beginning Initial Scans.”

And with that, Brenna began her own training into the mysteries of Earth.