Abilities and Spells

Megan awoke after a long, dreamless slumber, feeling refreshed and full of life. She had slept right through the morning, and it appeared to be almost midday by the clock on her HUD. Startled, Megan jumped out of bed and surprised herself when her head hit a roof beam and she fell flat on her face!

Lying on the ground, Megan gingerly touched the forming lump on the top of her skull and checked for bleeding. Finding none, she slowly rolled over on her back and looked up to see a noticeable dent in one of the thick, hardwood beams holding up the roof of her room. Sighing, she tentatively moved around, getting used to the newfound strength in her muscles and limbs. Again, she found the stretches she had been taught by Master Zanik to be superior in helping her to get on top of this.

Finishing up, she got comfortable on her bed and used her senses to look within herself. She discovered the pathways she had painstakingly created yesterday had solidified into physical presences throughout her body, but rather than flesh, each pathway was comprised of solid core energy tinted with a kaleidoscope of colours and glowing lines. Inside these pathways, the energy flowed this way, and that way in a revolving pattern beginning in her core area swirling around her body and ending back at her core area. Inside her core, the infinity symbol was swelling and pulsing but also looked bloated and... fat? This was not healthy as far as she could tell but had no idea what to do. As she studied her core a faint beeping noise caught her attention, and she came out of her meditative state to a strange icon in her vision and a transparent arrow that pointed at her Wrist-Comp on which a small green icon in the shape of her body was blinking in time with the beeps. Holding the screen up she pushed the icon with her finger and startled as the screen lit up and showed a diagram of her core with the symbol hanging there!

The picture was a perfect replica in every way, and she stared fascinated as the unhealthy-looking symbol began to slowly rotate in place turning faster and faster until it took on a solid look that was no longer flat and motionless but constantly moving and full of power.

Sinking back into her meditative state Megan looked into her core area and studied the fat, slightly pulsing core and slowly approached a corner of the symbol with her thoughts and in the same way she used to grab the energy while creating her pathways she placed her awareness and imagined applying pressure in a way that instead of drawing out some energy she would actually get the whole symbol to rotate.

At first her awareness passed through the energy without causing any movement. Then her next attempts just withdrew energy from the core which is not what she wanted. Concentrating harder she spread her thoughts out and attempted to increase the surface area of the energy that they encompassed. Eventually she managed to feel the entire edge of the symbol and started again to apply the pressure to get it to move.

Time passed and her exhaustion intensified as she failed again and again to move the symbol in the direction she wanted as her thoughtforms failed to take hold or she would move one part and not another as the energy seemed to have a will of its own and decided to not co-operate with her wishes.

Having enough Megan clamped tightly down on her thoughts and with a supreme effort she dragged all her willpower she possessed together and bore down on the symbol, coalescing all her training and and straining with everything she had, she pushed!

Megan felt something within her core area make a huge crack sound and as she watched, slowly, oh so ponderously and with much hesitation, the symbol in the centre of her core started to move and spin on itself. Faster, faster and even faster it rotated as the bloated symbol shed the unhealthy fat look and took on a sleek and solid motion that radiated power and supreme control.

Megan let out a breath she was unaware she had been holding and just sat back exhausted as she allowed her mind to rest.

Slowly allowing awareness to creep back in Megan drifted back from her meditative state and realised that it was deep into the next night, looking at the time she was surprised to see she had spent almost sixteen hours meditating and getting her core symbol to spin. Looking into her core area now the changes were incredible as there was now just what looked like a solid mass of energy in a circle that dipped towards the centre like someone had taken a sphere and pressed down on top and bottom until they met together in the middle. The power and majesty of the scene in her core instilled awe in her at the deepest level possible and the energy travelling through her pathways was thick and strong in intensity.

Carefully standing she again went through her stretches then decided to go for a run to work off some of the boundless energy she had as going to sleep right now would be a fruitless endeavour.

Arriving outside of the main building but still within the confines of the walls surrounding the inn Megan began with a light jog to start with and after a couple of laps she increased her speed to a slow run and after a while when she realised she was not even slightly winded and the energy circulating through her was not even activating she decided to see what she could really do and in a burst of speed and focusing some of her energy into her legs without any effort at all she practically teleported forward and had to quickly turn before slamming herself into a wall. If she had been looking at herself when she did this, she would have been astonished that her speed was such that she left an afterimage of herself that lasted half a second and had made a small depression in the ground. Faster and faster as she went, she realised quickly that she needed a much longer and straighter space to run in order to really see what she could do so she allowed her speed to slowly decrease until she was running at a speed that most people would consider a sprint but to her she knew she could maintain for a long time.

After going a few more laps of the walls she slowed down and came to a stop, not even breathing heavily despite the exertion she had put on herself. Megan went to clean up, get changed and had breakfast before entering the training courtyard where she found Master Zanik as well as his disciple Helena sparing together. She watched them as she went through her stretches and preliminary exercises and marvelled at the grace and fluid movements on display.

The precision and perfect control between them was incredible. Each punch and every kick was thrown with precision and speed then countered or evaded with dodges and twists seamlessly in a beautiful dance of death.

Megan stared entranced at them as they went back and forth following each movement closely and committing it all to memory. Slowly a pattern emerged to what they were doing and Megan was able to vaguely predict the next move and surprised herself with the accuracy she had in doing so.

Eventually Master Zanik and Helena wound down and stopped and Master Zanik approached Megan as Helena went on to train Tau.

Master Zanik studied Megan with a surprised expression for a few moments and asked, "Megan, have you broken through to a higher stage of cultivation? Your core energy seems like it is still at level one of Core Awakening stage but the sheer amount and density of the energy you are producing as well as circulating is unprecedented."

Seeing her confusion Master Zanik sighed. "I apologise Megan and forgot you are new to this, let me explain a few things, including a little about the stages of cultivation as I know them." Master Zanik had settled comfortably and gestured for Megan to do the same.

Sitting before her teacher Megan listened as Master Zanik talked. "The way I was taught about cultivation is that there are ten standard stages, each stage has very specific characteristics despite a certain tendency for variance between individuals that may make one more or less powerful than the other. Each stage has ten 'levels' and each level is usually delineated by a breakthrough that raises in difficulty the higher the level you are in the stage. The first stage is Core Awakening, then Core Compression and on to Core Forging. The first three stages as you may have noticed deal mostly with developing and refining ones core. Then once the core is forged into the desired shape called a Focus by cultivators then you have reached Focus Formation, then the next stage is Focus Tempering and finally Focus Assimilation. The next stages are very dependent on what the cultivator has achieved throughout developing the core and focus stages but the seventh stage is usually called Soul Transformation then on to Soul Absorption and finally Soul Transcendence. After that, all that is left is to reach for Immortality, the final stage that everyone aspires to."

Megan sat absorbing this new information and she just had to ask, "Master, what stage are you?"

Master Zanik blinked at her a few times then answered, "I will tell but I must warn you not to ask any other cultivator what stage of cultivation they are on as it is considered extremely impolite and often will cause a cultivator to become quite hostile toward you,"

Realising her mistake Megan interrupted, "If that is the case please accept my apologies for my ignorance and there is no need to tell me."

She started to lean forward to express her apology but felt Master Zanik's hand on her shoulder as he said, "Please do not feel you need to apologise to me Megan I take no offence. To answer your question I am roughly at mid Focus Formation stage but doubt I will make it to Focus Tempering before I pass away from old age, despite the increases to lifespan each level provides."

Seeing her expression change Master Zanik continued, "Do not be concerned, there is still plenty of life left to these old scales of mine so please do not worry."

Master Zanik rose to his feet and gestured for Megan to do the same, "Now," Master Zanik clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "let's see what abilities we can get your mysteriously dense core energy to accomplish huh?"

Megan felt confused, "Abilities Master? What are those?"

Master Zanik led her over to a large square and thick piece of metal that appeared to be bolted into the sturdy brick wall behind it. The metal had strange marks and faint lines criss-crossing its surface some faint and some looking more noticeable. Master Zanik stood before the metal and focused. Megan sensed energy circulating in Master Zaniks pathways from core and accumulate in his hands. Master Zanik moved and manipulated the energy in the air between his hands then thrust out his arm with his palm facing the wall. From his hand the energy, now in the shape of a circle of light the middle of which had lines, geometric shapes, and runes swirling hung in the air for a moment before imploding into a bright hot ball of fire that burst forward and exploded against the metal wall.

Megan stared at the smoking discolouration on the wall, the fireball had not punched a hole but had definitely slightly damaged and melted the surface of the wall. Considering the obvious strength of the wall this fireball was powerful.

Master Zanik proceeded to display techniques and abilities that could be done with energy from a slash of energy that needed a sharp weapon to release to using energy to accelerate healing and slow bleeding. The trick to anything was knowing how to manipulate the energy and to do it fast enough to release when needed. Sometimes battles required quickly flung energy in its purest form to attack and hasty shielding energy that could be manifested at will only covering the needed area at the moment of impact. There would be battles where time could taken to set traps and enchanted wards then ambushing the enemy from cover while strategically withdrawing to the next position.

Megan learned that there were three basic forms of energy manipulation that all cultivators used. The first used to attack and defend, called Abilities, the second used to enhance the body beyond its normal limits, called Augments, and then the final category was for everything else, called Spellcrafts. The easiest form was Augments that came almost naturally to cultivators as all that was required was to direct energy and gather it at certain points within the body to enhance actions like throwing a punch or dodging an attack. Abilities consisted of using energy outside the body in quick and decisive actions such as swinging a weapon and releasing a directed attack from the motion or covering armour in shielding energy to block or redirect an attack. Spellcraft was reserved for more esoteric actions that were harder to learn and even harder to master usually taking longer casting times but making up for it in the power and versatility of use.

Master Zanik directed Megan to stand before the wall and began to teach her to use her first Ability.