Jason shakes his head and refocuses on the last two steps. For the sixth he is still missing the Energy equivalent so for now can only write down how it works with Mana and Qi. And what there is to write down just makes him realize how tricky it is going to be to figure out the Energy equivalent.

Because this is the one step with the most variance. From the two powers he does have, the idea behind this step is specialization. Not that he had to guess too much about that. Gregor’s notes for this section were more extensive than any other. Mostly because the methods in the book only really work if your power isn’t aligned. Someone with fire aligned Mana would need to tweak the step to work with their particular variant. Nevertheless, the basics are there.

With Mana the specialty is range and planning. While the other two powers can mimic some of these things, Mana is the power bombardment and contingencies. From the famous magic missile to the classic explosive runes spell. So to finish this step a mage has to command the mana in his pool to explode outward and then rush back in. All the while maintaining the hold on regeneration from step five. The key in completing the step is having control of your Mana and understanding of your limits so that you can repeat this process at least three times. Though the further you can send the Mana out and have it return as well as the more times you can repeat the action, the better the results.

Qi, on the other hand, is all about sudden bursts of power and passives. While magic is well known for its many buff spells, Qi doesn’t bother with such things because the power itself boosts so many different things, even if it is limited to the user. The same is true with bursts of power. Everyone knows about the fireball spell but that isn’t really a burst of power. Rather, it is a constrained seed that smoothly activates to release the contained power.

Qi is about being able to punch out at any moment and have your fist suddenly emitting a piercing glow. The serenity of standing there for hours motionless only for your hand to suddenly be grabbing a leaf that was falling next to you. Which is actually a decent method of training during this step. Unlike with Mana, you need something outside of yourself for this step. Though just about anything that happens at random moments will do, including the wind and the rain.

To complete the step, Qi users will mediate, letting their power sit still in their core. The moment whatever they are paying attention to happens, burst out with a limb and at the last possible moment, charge the limb with Qi. It doesn’t have to be an attack, just instant and at full strength. In fact, some of the notes included in the book’s text itself, mention how sometimes a gentle action is worth more than an all out attack. As long as you fully activate your Qi before the action completes, you repeat it. Of course the goal is to do a number of successful reps and stop. Though apparently early on it is considered lucky if you can manage to complete the action once, let alone multiple times.

This leaves whatever the Energy equivalent is supposed to be. Jason however decides to skip it for the moment. Some of the past steps informed the later steps, so it doesn’t hurt to move onto number seven, the consolidation step. Because all those fancy steps are useless if you let your core return to its previous state.

Mages have it easy. Because of how Mana acts, the power helps consolidate the core. They still have to infuse some of the familiarized Mana into the core, eventually. But they can get away with only doing it every so often if they aren’t completely emptying their cores. Qi, on the other hand is the complete opposite. You let that go even a moment and all advancement will be lost. Though instead of any fancy infusion, Qi needs you to shove a bunch up against the core walls and let it sit around for a while. This does take up about ten percent of the pool but is brain dead simple.

Energy on the other hand is a whole nother kettle of fish. Because Energy is continually flowing, you can’t just shove some of it up against the core walls. Though things aren’t too bad. To make it work you spin up the Energy in all directions so the power presses up against the core walls evenly as long as you keep the spin going. This means you aren’t wasting any of your potential power, a good thing when Energy doesn’t exactly stack up. The problem is that unlike other cores; you need to consciously keep the spin active, so no doing the technique and going to bed like the other two can. At least it only takes about an hour for the gains to be locked in place.

Jason sighs, ‘Well that didn’t help with figuring out what to do for the sixth step. And the three generic steps aren’t exactly going to help either. Just pour your power into the outer layer of the core, shrink that layer while keeping the power in place, and when the power and outer layer of the core are about half overlapped, jostle it a little to start a crystallization process.’

‘While useful for expanding the general capacity and toughening the core, it is too generic. Going by Gregor’s notes, the method even works with aligned powers. I guess the only way to go about it is a little more look into the first book. What I need is to pin down the core specialty of Energy like it did for Mana and Qi. At least with that I have a place to start from.’