CHAPTER 21: Hani Core

I swallowed hard as soon as I realized the significance of the mistake I made.

Alistair clicked his tongue. "The moral lesson of my story is that never go to the med bay to heal injuries gotten from a fight, especially when you don't want to be found out as the attacker."

I and Alistair continued down the hall. "But it's not like we're involved with most of the faction infighting. Hydra isn't big enough for that, we probably wouldn't even fill the gap in those big factions' teeth."

"That has its advantages," Replied Alistair, he then turned and looked at me with a strange look in his eyes. "Anyway, what did you do with the bodies of Zac and his group?"

"Oh," I replied. "I left them in that alley."

Alistair once again clicked his tongue and looked away. "What a shame."

I looked at Alistair in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Replied Alistair he then sighed and stopped at a branch in the hall. "This is where I go, I'll see you later."

"Wait!" I called out.

Alistair had started down the hall but turned and looked back at me with impatience. "What is it? Class is starting soon so make it fast."

I looked around before walking closer to Alistair and whispering under my breath since Ranked have better sense than normal people and I didn't want to take any chance that someone would hear us.

"Did Randy eventually deliver it?" 

A look of understanding passed Alistair's face after which he leaned forward and answered quietly.

"Yeah he did, the next day. Mr. Toeeb wasn't happy that we didn't tell him that the police were watching us so I had to remind him that it worked out in his favor."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well since nothing really illegal was found he saw an opportunity and made a big fuss with the city authorities. Because of that Lieutenant Maxwell is standing on thin ice and another wrong move and she might be demoted or maybe even fired!"

I looked in the air after I heard that, then suddenly I began laughing. It was so loud that students that passed by looked at me like I was crazy but I didn't care.

When I had calmed down I patted Alistair on his shoulder.

"That plan you made was genius, everything worked out as you expected."

"Of course it did, I almost never make any mistakes." Replied Alistair with a slight arrogant smile.

I turned and began heading down the hall leading to Hani manipulation class, I then waved over my shoulder. "Later."

The smile on Alistair's face slowly disappeared and was soon replaced by one of deep thought." Yeah, later." 

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Instructor Vann walked into the classroom.

"Settle down, this is our last lesson for the week and we have a lot to cover today."

Instructor Vann reached the podium and stepped onto it. "We're going over two things today."

She raised up one finger. "One, how to reach the First Tier." She raised up another finger. "And two, Stances."

"Let's get started with a question. What is a Hani core?" She slowly looked around the classroom. "Now who should I ask?"

Her gaze landed on someone. "Leon, answer the question."

As soon as Leon got up the girls in the class started squealing.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. 'Just because he's a little good looking, the girls are all over him, it's a travesty, I'm so much better looking than him.'

Leon was a red haired fourteen year old who stood six feet three inches tall, he was quite strong and had regularly been in the top hundred of the Class Rankings since we entered the Secondary Section at around number sixty. The reason he was popular among not only the girls but also the boys was that not because of his looks, no it was because of who he was connected to.

Since we had been in the same class for many years I knew him quite well, and I....

'....despise him.' 

Leon had been a problem for me during our time in the Primary Section before we moved up to the Secondary Section. He along with two of his friends beat me almost every day. The reason for this was simple, the person he's connected to told him to.

That person has a lot of influence in Freestone and back then she was called names like the queen of the Primary Section, prodigy, saint and other names like that, she also led the Primary Section division of a faction in the Secondary Section. I don't even fully understand why she targeted me, it's not like I was anyone of note back then, but whatever her reason was she didn't like it when I refused to join her faction. Because of that Leon and two of his friends were told to make my life miserable, well eventually she seemed to give up on making me join her faction, but Leon and his friends didn't leave me alone until an 'event' happened later.

Anyway Leon and I have a lot of bad blood between us, me because he made my life miserable and him because he blamed me for something that happened during the 'event'.

I watched with murderous thought in my mind as Leon began answering the question.

"A Hani core is the storage unit for Hani, it is also what lets Ranked progress in Tiers," he paused and looked around the class. "Without it no one will ever be able to reach a higher Tier."

Instructor Vann softly clapped her hands as Leon sat down. "Great answer. With that explanation I can go straight to explaining how to reach the First Tier."

"The first thing to know is that in its natural state Hani is all over the body, not just in one place. The second is that the maximum Hani a person has is decided from birth, it has been tested for centuries and the conclusion is that there is no way to increase the Hani capcity a person has at birth."

"And lastly, everybody has Hani and even if they are not Ranked they still use it unconsciously which drains it, this drainage of Hani is what causes people to get tired. When people get exhausted what actually happens is that they use up most of the Hani in their body, and since Hani is required to perform all actions they feel drained, both mentally and physically."

Instructor Vann got off the podium and began walking around the classroom.

"What we know is that when Hani is in the body it's not pure, there are many impurities that are mixed with it, in fact naturally 'Hani' is actually made up of ninety-five percent impurities and only five percent is the real Hani. The impurities over time infect the Hani which is what leads to people having shorter lifespans. So the more Hani that is refined the longer a Ranked will live."

Instructor Vann walked up the middle aisle then continued her lecture. "To reach the First Tier a Ranked has to refine enough Hani to create a core, this is done by merging the refined Hani while expelling the impurities from your body."

Instructor Vann reached the back of the room and began walking past all the students on the last row. "But just creating a core is not enough, when a Ranked refines all the Hani in their body the hani refining completion will only be at ninety-nine percent."

"This is because it's not enough to just remove all the impurities in Hani and have a gaseous core," Instructor Vann walked back down the middle aisle. "Sure you'll be much stronger and faster, you'll also live to reach at least one hundred and fifty years of age, but...." 

Instructor Vann reached the podium and looked at us with fire in her eyes. "If you really want to break past the shackles of humanity that's not enough, you'll have to have your Hani go through a qualitative change, and that's done by condensing your Hani so the Hani core will change from being gaseous to liquid."

The fire in Instructor Vann's eyes suddenly left and she returned to her usually robotic fashion. "Anyway that's all I'll say about the First Tier, we'll now move on and talk about what Hani is actually used for, Stances."

Instructor Vann glanced down at her XOC briefly before looking back up. "Stances are similar to Hani refining techniques in the way that they are just ways to move the Hani in your body in a particular fashion. What this does depends on the stance you use, but today I'm only going to talk about five stances."