Chapter 156

A Simple Morning Workout

The day started off well enough. The sun rose, at least I assume it did due to the rapid temperature and barometric pressure changes. Animals seemed to be stirring in their pens.

I even got a random visit for Kujo who was trying to provide for his pregnant mate.

A quick curing of the Blighted animal, and duplicate life creation later and I thought life as we knew it would be fine.

Unfortunately, I could not have been more incorrect with my assessment of how the day would go from there. For while doing what I considered my normal morning chores, I apparently had a stalker watching me.

Well, I knew they were there, I just hoped that if I ignored them long enough, they would leave. That, however, was not the case.

“That was amazing, you not only cured the animal of the Blight, but then managed to create an exact copy of the animal for your own breeding pens.” The nasally voice of Rahul, the lich, and who has nothing to do with my favorite fictional character, arrived, shattering the serenity that I had momentarily allowed to settle over me as I went through my morning paces.

I nodded to him, then began going through my morning stretches.

Since I have learned to harness Qi within my body, morning stretches have become so much easier. I also didn’t mind the idea of having Qi flowing through me at this time, particularly with how close the lich was.

“Also, what are these movements that you are now doing?” Rahul asked inquisitively, before trying to do some of the same.

Not going to lie, having a random leg appear from the void of his corrupted soul was a bit unnerving. At that, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had always had his entire body and just wore the void around him like some esoteric sleeping bag? The idea did seem oddly comfortable, but I doubted that is what the Lich was using it for, as it was likely a pocket dimension of stored power. At least that is what I gathered from looking at it, I would of course need my third eye to fully see what it was that happened to the rest of Lich’s body, but I did not want to give this monster with what had to have been a fairly common name given to Enchanters any sign that I was interested in him at all.

So I stretched.

Crackle.

Rahul, the visiting dignitary of Deolar, tried to do the same exact movements, though his bones clearly had trouble just keeping their exact weight up.

Finally, after a few minutes of me being alone with the Lich, Jhonny my personal bodyguard came and also broke into his own stretches.

“Good form Jhonny, try to rotate your energy from your pivoting joints and through your contact points with the ground.” I stated, Jhonny nodded and looked like he was about to reply, when he was rudely cut off.

“What about me?” The voice of Rahul asked, now going away from the position that I was holding indefinitely, to trying to mirror Jhonny’s form. Though he began wobbling almost immediately.

“Try not to break my floor with your face when you fall.” I answered.

“Hey.” Rahul said, straightening up, but doing so without any true coordination, causing him to fall over to the side. Fortunately, he had his extra-large void sleeping bag to catch him before he could fall over completely and hit his head as I warned.

“Good, you can at least follow simple instructions.” I stated, though I was really giving his permanently active void pillow the credit here over his actual ability to follow instructions. Maybe I should thank his dumb luck?

By now more and more students were beginning to come for the morning Qi Manifestation class. As they came in, I made sure to greet each of them.

“Good morning Stevron, good work on building up your legs. Today, I think I am going to have you begin with a brisk mile run to warm up, then going to twenty sets of wall climbs, legs only.” I said.

Wall climbs were fairly simple to understand, but hard to achieve if you were not either highly skilled or awakening the Qi path. The climbs were basically the process of running into a wall, then kicking off of it, into a nearly adjacent wall, then doing so until you reached the top.

“Understood master.” Stevron replied, going so far as to cup his hands and bow to me. I don’t know where they started doing that, but it was not worth correcting. Especially as I think it is their way of joking with me, which means I have to ignore it, lest they continue doing so forever.

I know that this whole master thing is something that only my morning class does, if I had to guess, I think Jhonny had a part to play in that. Though again, I can’t let it show it is getting to me, lest they continue this nonsense forever, as such I will just bide my time and get them back, in my own way.

“What should I do?” Rahul asked.

“Be quiet and try not to die, again.” I state, shutting down Rahul, as I quickly go through training regimen for each student that comes into my class.

“You are going to fall behind at this rate Underhill. Going to make you do double gassers and double plank walks to warm up.” I began, realizing that Underhill had only worked out for at most one of the three days that I was gone.

“Yes, master.” Underhill replied, a bit of resignation in his voice, but he didn’t seem to complain. Though I wonder if the master was used here just out of spite. Well shows what he gets for missing leg day, and well every part of the body day.

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Finally, both the ghostly Knight Captain Glavis De’Arcaneri, and ghostly Lieutenant Foliv De’Travin arrived.

“Good morning gentlemen. You two will be my test cases to see if Qi is able to be produced in the body of an undead.” I tell them flat out, “to be honest, I give this about a fifty-fifty shot of working. Likely this will all depend on how much effort you put into this training. Qi is all about the strengthening of the body, and well your bodies have been altered to a much different state. It is very likely that even if you do develop Qi it might be capped out, and or twice to three times harder to improve. That said, if you do manage to develop Qi, it is very likely that you can be part of the first waves of super ghosts that can freely roam the world without needing extra magical assistance.”

As I state that, I really wonder if I am about to create a wave of super ghosts that most of the world will have to start worrying about. At this moment, I wonder if Oppenheimer had a similar moment of doubt, then quickly disregard that thought, this is science. Also, it can’t really get too bad, can it? At least not from this one group of spirits that I will train.

Then almost as if to fully get me to accept the challenge I’ve set for myself, I get a new system message.

Hidden Mythical Level Quest Found (Upgradable): Qi For The Dead: You have begun training two prime candidates on how to grow and harness Qi. Assist the ghosts with developing and understanding Qi within their own bodies and get them to produce spirit Qi. Rewards: Experience, Title, Mythical Bloodline Awakening Process, variable.

Now this, was interesting and like the first and only chance I will get at trying to awaken the next phase of my bloodline. Not that I am really true worried about this, as the Mythical Bloodline is believed to be the path to transcendence. Also, messing up that bloodline can apparently have very dire consequences. Though, like all the other bloodline quests I have undertaken, this one will likely be one that I can do or not do for years or centuries.

Maybe this is the systems way of rewarding me for creating the next wave of super ghosts that will be able to fight back against nearly all forms of attacks. As the most common form of attacks by priests to undead is Banishment, which effectively makes the safe area where the ghosts can live and operate in disappear from a targeted area.

Basically, the spell will purify an area of land and make it so that it no longer provides protection for the undead that have taken refuge in an area. With the advent of Qi or as the system so helpfully told me, Spirit Qi, the ghost’s body will effectively become the area of refuge, making it so they will be immune to Banishment, and other similar spells for dealing with the undead.

I’d almost feel bad, but I realized quite a few things. First, me and my family will be safe, thanks to the Spiritlight name. Also, with the completion of our quest for me to get Mallory to marry me, well to marry me while I am in the avatar of the elven ghost king, our guild will get a merit that makes up friendly with spirits as well. Meaning that we will have even more of a potential buffer zone protecting us from possible threats in the future.

Also, most of the priests in this world are corrupt for greed and money. So, making them a little less effective is only karma coming back to bite them.

My parents had a chance to be healed by a priest, but he favored saving rich people with minor injuries that provided a huge donation to them. By the time anyone got to my parents, they were already dead.

That was part of why I wanted to be a healer, and also partly why I chose the Broke flaw, as I didn’t want to be guided by bribes. Rather I wanted to heal anyone who needed it.

“Master.” Jhonny cut into my thoughts, causing me to blink for a moment as I finally realized where I was.

“Huh?” I answer, but then realize that both the Captain and Lieutenant are right there waiting for me to guide them.

“All right, we are going to first work on creating what is called spirit Qi. I think this will be your body’s version of the mortal Qi we mortals use. Unfortunately, I don’t know what this Qi looks like nor how it will react. As such, I am going to need you to exercise until you begin to produce some form of spirit Qi, and we will take it from there. How does that sound?” I ask.

With that the two looked from me, then back to each other, then back to me.

“Okay, so what would you have us do?” Captain Glavis asked for the two of them.

“Simple, all you need to do is keep up with me and do exactly what I do.” I state.

I then pause, before making sure to tell them, “We will go until you reach muscle failure. Oh, and don’t try to hold back, I will know if you are lying, and I will make sure you pay for that.”

“You think you can get us to muscle failure, before you pass out?” The Lieutenant, Foliv, asked.

Chuckles.

With that all of the regular members of my Qi Manifestation class just laughed to themselves, as I realized I really needed to push them and myself today. I had after all gone through not one but two core evolutions recently and needed to see what a 20% boost to all my Physical Attributes meant.

“Oh, aren’t you precious.” I reply back in my best southern accent.

With that, everyone, well everyone that wasn’t part of the visiting spirit delegation tensed up.

Then I went for the kill.

“Let’s just say we begin with a few light exercises and see where we are after an hour?” I ask.

“Okay, though I don’t think you understand the amount of training we go through daily.” The Captain responded, trying to and failing to deescalate the situation.

With that I was hit with my second quest prompt of the morning, after seeing it, I couldn’t help but let a devilish smile form on my lips.

Hidden Quest Activated: New Recruits: You are being challenged by the visiting Deolar delegation members to participate in your morning exercise. Get the members of the delegation to reach muscle failure in the time provided. Current time remaining (60 / 60 minutes). Current participants not at muscle failure (3/3). Rewards: Experience, Deolar prestige, variable.

“Oh, this sounds like a spot of good fun. Can I join as well?” Rahul asked, clearly intending to invite himself along to this little challenge that had been set up.

While I have to admit I am not a fan of this Rahul, I will say the idea of both taking him down a peg and being rewarded for doing so does have a strange appeal to me.

“Just a heads up, we will be going through a bit of an obstacle course, it is okay if you cannot keep up with a frail little female like me, but know that there will be a penalty of a hundred burpees that will be completed after the hour and will not count towards the time given.” I state.

At that, the two knights looked like this was not a big deal, as they no doubt expected to be able to keep up with me.

“Sounds fair.” The Knight Captain stated.

With that, I got a modified version of the quest to come up.

Hidden Quest (Modified): New Recruits: You are being challenged by the visiting Deolar delegation members to participate in your morning exercise. Get the members of the delegation to reach muscle failure in the time provided. You will run a series of obstacles, any obstacles that are not completed by any of the three will result in a set of a hundred burpees that will be completed after the hour time limit, and not count towards the overall time given. Current time remaining (60 / 60 minutes). Current participants not at muscle failure (3/3). Rewards: Experience, Deolar prestige, variable.

Seeing the modified quest appear before me, I couldn’t help but let out a smile.

“Oh man, she is going to kill them.” Stevron said, apparently seeing the look of determination of my face.

“You do realize she is only a third our level and half our size. Also, we,” The Lieutenant began pointing to both himself and the Captain, “are both physical classes.”

“My man, listen to me when I say, it has been good to know you. Don’t worry though, as she will tell you. You won’t die, as she won’t give you permission to die. Instead, she will resurrect you right there on the spot and make you start over again.” Stevron said, a note of pride in his voice.

Honestly after his words, I felt a little embarrassed, as that was oddly sweet, if a bit morbid. Still the thought was there that he would stick up for me, which I appreciated.

“Whatever, we will show you what the training and discipline we have managed to master after thousands of years of practice and dedication.” The Lieutenant continued.

“Hearing that, do any of you want to join us?” I asked.

“At your pace, or can we go at our own speed?” Underhill asked.

“My pace, obviously.” I replied.

“Uh, I have a lot of training that I am already behind from over the break.” Underhill admitted, clearly not wanting to keep up with my pace.

“No one?” I asked.

“I’ll try.” Jhonny said.

And with that a smile crested my lips, as I made sure to tell him my expectations. “You better last longer than these three yahoos.”

“Yes Master.” Jhonny said, with a bow.

Shaking my head, I still can’t believe they are going with that even now.

“All right, let’s get this party started.” I stated, then without any preamble I waited until all four followers who were going to join me for my morning practice. Then once they all nodded they were ready, I turned around and took off.

Within a minute I was up to my new full speed, then not even looking to see if anyone was around I focused on my own morning routine.

After my first lap around, I saw the Lich floating lifelessly, panting for air as he tried to continue going at all, let alone at my own pace.

“You’ll sleep when you are dead, well more dead. Until then keep going.” I shouted, making sure to give the Lich a quick Qi infused tap, to make sure he had some energy to keep going.

Crackle.

Apparently, my speed and Qi were a bit too much for the Lich, but the poke did do its part in getting the Lich to straighten up and stop resting in its void cloud blanket.

Seeing the Lich’s state I realized I was already close to being one third the way done with my quest. Though getting the Lich out was never my goal, as I had bigger aspirations. I wanted to prove to the world what we were about here, at SVC, and that is exactly what I set about doing.