Qi

"I'm going to unseal your core..."

"Core? What core? I don't have one-"

He moved grabbed me at lightening speed and he said,

"I'm sorry. You gave great potential I can't let it go to waste. You have a great core, I can feel it. These thoughts going through your mind are effects of the seal. I had them too."

He stopped speaking and he placed two fingers on my the middle of my chest. However he didn't just place them he pierced me and injected a foreign energy into my body.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

For some reason it hurt more than what it should have been. Fighting against the pain was the only thing I could think of.

I could feel master's strange energy fighting some foreign mana in me and then I blacked out.

†

My eyes fluttered open and I saw a strange roof. I looked to my side and I saw a young man with grey hair.

Who is he?

I looked down and I saw bandages on my chest.

Why am I injured? This isn't the castle. Where's mother? Who's this man?

I shifted a little and I felt pain and immediately all the memories of what happened here rushed in. I widened my eyes and jumped off the bed I was lying on.

"If you move too much you might reopen the wound."

"Yes master"

I laid back without closing my eyes obviously waiting for an explanation.

"Feel your mana"

I did as he asked and I closed my eyes and meditated. I drew out mana and I began to cycle it around my body. This time it was much clearer and more... pure.

It was like I had upgraded from playing phone games to playing fully immersive VMMORPGs. I realized that the mana I had been using before was crude, unrefined, dirty and every other synonym you can think of unrefined.

This one was pure but something bigger caught my attention. In the middle of my chest I could feel the home of all this new mana. A black crystal that shined like it was polished by a god. Despite being black it was magnificent. Mythical.

"Come here"

I went to him. My new master. He was sitting outside on the wooden platform and I joined him there.

"There's still one more thing to do. Circulate mana around your core as fast as you can. Don't stop. Don't lose concentration for a second."

I did as he asked and I started to circulate mana around my core at a really fast speed. Then,

~WHAM~

He hit my chest with his fist and the next thing I did was vomit a lot of black goo for the next twenty minutes.

~GBUEH~

I fell on my back and I let out a series of pants. In the middle of that I asked,

"Master, what rank are you?"

"Level 920"

"You're a god!"

"I can't be compared to yor father though. That guy is a monster. He made all of my mana techniques divine moves when he became a god."

"More importantly, I'll be passing down a new technique to you tomorrow. Don't be late. It's seven pm already" Master added.

"Good night kid"

Suddenly I was teleported to my dorm room. I found my mask on my face and it was kinda weird wearing it again.

I felt my mana and this time it was a shiny blue colour. My mana was even purer than it was moments ago! Feeling all that pure mana was really addictive.

The door opened with Leon and Roy spilling into the room holding ice creams and chatting together.

"Hey where have you been!?" Roy asked.

"Rachel said you disappeared after your sword class" Leon added.

"Ah, don't worry about it. I was just learning some moves with the old man. Can you believe he hit me on the head with his walking stick when I didn't get something right!?"

"Hahaha"

"Hahahahaha"

"Hahahahahahahaha"

We all laughed and went to bed. I decided not to tell them about this core business till I get solid answers.

~GROWL~

I just remembered I didn't eat anything today.

Hearing the sound of my stomach, Leon and Roy laughed again and I went out to get some late night turkey.

†

I walked out of the sword class ignoring the whispers of "pathless" "elementless".

I walked into the bamboo forest and this time I couldn't escape the 'bamboo flying trap' that flung me accross the sky yesterday but this time I was caught by master.

Honestly, I didn't think this was all real but the refreshing mana in my body and the shining blue core was a constant reminder.

This time we sat on the platform outside where we did yesterday. I sat crosslegged waiting for an info-dump and it came.

"In the past. There were two energies used. Mana wasn't the only one"

Since yesterday, I had stopped disbelieving my master. He had already proved the core theory yesterday so why wouldn't this other energy be real?

"An energy that is used mainly for augmenting the body. Not for magic spells or casting fireballs around. It is called Qi"