019 Meridians and Auras

The best source of information about meridians and auras came from his roommates. Nico didn't have much opportunity to observe other people with Minko's vision, but it was possible to analyze his roommates.

Jack sat on his bed meditating at night.

As Minko, Nico swam toward Jack. He saw the two nodes with wind related symbols in addition to his manaroot, which spun wildly around. Unfortunately, Minko's vision was limited to clusters that dimmed and reappeared from the human body. Nico could not see where the nodes originated from within the body.

Nico swan to the right and scanned Vincent, who was also meditating.

Vincent had two glowing nodes that was glowing brightly in his body and two spirals floating around the spirit root. Nico swam closer, but another energy prevented him was examining closer. Nico saw a beastly stare from Vincent's spirit root protecting the host and backed away.

From what Nico had heard, Vincent had a Heavenly White Tiger root level 7 with 3 meridians and 3 auras.

Nico swam to the other side toward Ashe.

Ashe had two glowing nodes and 7 spirals around the spirit root. The arraignment of the spirals reminded Nico of the orbits of planets around the sun, with the distances increasing between each ring. All the spirals originated from a node that spiral around the root. Ashe spirit root was also hidden.

The glowing nodes were considered meridians and the spirals were considered auras.

From the observation, Nico assumed that the system counted both meridians and auras as mananodes. How a person used the mananodes determines whether it was classified as a meridian or aura.

It was interesting to see the differences in the formation of meridian and aura.

When Ashe was meditating to create the aura, he was focused on forming a manaring around his spiritual root. As he swirled the mana symbols around, he would try to keep the symbols in orbit. Sometimes the mana symbols would drift out and he had to circulate it around again until it entered the orbit correctly and stabilize. The circulating orbit naturally attract a manaline from the node. Ashe had seven manalines from seven different nodes forming the spirals. It sounded simple, but it took him three days to add one layer of mana symbols around the orbit.

This was very different from opening meridians. Opening meridians involved a lot less control. The main objective was to shoot symbols from the spirit root directly into the nodes. It was like an arrow penetrating a paper target. As more mana penetrate the node, there would be more holes and opening in the target. Once the opening was wide enough, a manaline of connection was formed between the spirit root and the meridian. The meridian manaline was not as complex as the aura, but it was thicker and sturdier. Although the method seems simpler than forming aura, it was also more painful. Every shot of mana into the nodes were like sharp stabs from rusted needles.

Nico was already in the process of forming a manaball in his head node, and had no idea what to expect. He was hoping for another manaroot.

Nice completed, he could attempt the Chaotic Devil Cultivation Method.

On the night before class officially commenced, Nico continued to meditate and focus on the ball in his head.

Vincent and Jack were already starting their cultivation and were in deep meditation while Ashe was reading by his bed. They weren't different from the other students in the Academy. All students must achieve a certain stage by a certain amount of time, or risked expulsion. There were too much on the line to slack off.

Nico used magic to absorb as much mana as possible. Once the mana entered his body, he used a bit of manaforce to break down the mana into manalines. He wrapped the manalines tightly onto the yarnball shaped mana in his head node.

As the manaline wrapped around, the manaball reacted. The manaball collapsed and fused together tightly forming a singular object half its original size. The manaball spun around and pulled apart the node into its orbit.

A drilling headache pounded into Nico's head, he screamed and collapsed onto the pillow.

All his roommates stopped their studies and looked at him. Before they could react, Nico was already waving to signal that he was fine.

"Nico, did you just open a meridian?" Jack inquired.

"I think so," Nico wasn't sure himself.

They quickly congratulated him.

"Is this your first time opening a meridian?" asked Ashe, he was curious because he had never seen a person opening their meridian so close by to him before.

"Yep! Now I could see why people say it's painful," responded Nico. "How did you guys manage to open your first meridian or aura?"

"My first meridian opened probably when I was five," Jack said. "I was running around in the fields when suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my right leg. I collapsed at that time because it was so sudden and sprained my ankle. My parents took me to the doctor. He didn't notice anything, but he recommended I practice the Kelseran Cultivation Method. The book was a bit expensive, but an uncle of mine had a copy and loaned it to me. I didn't think much of it until it happened again on my left leg and then my right arm. The pain was less sharp.

One day, Professor Tobias passed by our village. He noticed that my body had unlocked 3 meridians and recommended me to the academy."

"Your body unlocked three meridians? That takes talent!" Nico sounded both impressed and curious.

"That's how most students from common background gain entry into this school," said Ashe. "If you don't have talent for cultivation or magic, it's difficult to grow. You have to be from a clan or nobility to earn a head start."

"If you have the backing from the clan, why do clan members go to the Academy?"

"It's all about resources," Ashe explained. "The Hartlet Clan for example have thirty other members my age. They can't distribute their resources to everyone, so that is why clans use the Academy as a way to allocate resources. If you're accepted into an academy, you will naturally gain resources from the Academy and the clan will match what the Academy hands out. This way, only the most talented gets the resources."

"Ah, that makes sense," said Nico. "So when did you two open your meridians?"

Vincent thought about it. "The first one? I'm not sure," said Vincent. "When I was really young?"

This was the typical situation for commoners who had unexpectedly open their meridian at a young age. Who can truly remember everything that had happened to them before the age of five?

Ashe's clan probably kept a record of when each meridian was unlocked.

"Not telling," Ashe stated flatly.

"What an ass," Jack jeered. "I told you mine."

"You didn't have to."

"Ashe is right in that respect. We shouldn't disclose some information to others." Nico assumed it was a clan secret. "It's getting late, I'm going to sleep."

Nico laid down in bed to check his status.

Status:

Manaroot: Chaos 7

Mananode: 2

Manaspirit: Midnight Koi 29

Strength: 44

FP: 25/26

Defense: 32

Speed: 32

Magic: 38

MP: 73/74

Resistance: 34

Casting: 26

The new mananode was slightly different from the Chaos manaroot. If the Chaos manaroot was like a star, the mananode was like Saturn. Nico decided to name the mananode Saturn for that reason.

From a zoomed out perspective, the node resembled a meridian. However, a closer view would reveal a spiral from the manaroot forming a ring around Saturn. It was the opposite of an aura, which spiraled out from the mananode and into the manaroot.

He could feel both his manaforce and magic was growing stronger.

He was a bit reluctant to change his own way of forming the mananodes. He looked at the Devil Cultivation Method...

I'll just form nine manaballs in the nine meridians explained in the book, Nico decided.