The first day of the journey north was pretty uneventful. Kal and Dalen flanked Melisia and Leo Brightwing for the day, speaking of their plans for attempting to help Kal. Melisia said that first, they would begin working on attempting to divine Kal’s core, with both the divining implements and core visualization techniques. She said that though the divining implements were designed to assist with viewing another's core they always took significant tinkering to get a clear view. The core visualization techniques helped with this but they would also assist Kal later if he was able to ascend with sensing some of the more subtle intricacies of any skills he gained. Leo explained that they would start with sword forms but would also touch on hand-to-hand techniques and strategy. Discussing it all just made Kal more and more excited to get started, and he was relieved when the commander finally ordered the battalion to make camp.
They all found a relatively empty spot near the edge of camp and Melisia raised her amulet and before Kal’s eyes, a fully assembled tent appeared on the ground in front of them. Kal was surprised to see it but he knew what happened. Melisia must have had a spatial storage inscribed into her amulet. Kal hadn’t seen her put the tent away this morning since he was helping Dalen with his supplies. Damn, that’s convenient. Kal thought as he looked around their campsite. They were on a large flat plain near the edge of a forest, he wasn’t sure of the area outside of the city. He did get that class.
Melisia smiled at Kal. “Now that we have some time. Let's get started Kal.”
Dalen went off claiming that he was gonna try and make some coin selling some fast booze. Leo stayed at the entrance of the tent and stood guard.
“Now if you please take a seat in the circle I will adjust the divination scopes.”
Kal did so a nervousness was starting to creep up on him. “How long does it normally take to visualize your own core?”
Melisia kept adjusting the scopes but smiled. “I know you're excited and nervous, but I don’t expect you to get it right the first time we try it. That would be ridiculous. No, I just want to get the process cemented in your mind and we can refine everything down over the next few days until we get a clear image of your core.”
A little disappointed, Kal tried to relax while he waited for her to finish adjusting her equipment. He still felt agitated when she finally finished.
“Ok Kal, we are ready to begin,” she moved over and sat cross-legged in front of him. “The first step in visualizing your core relies on keeping your mind free of outside sensations and attempting to clear your mind of unnecessary thoughts. I will erect a barrier around you so that you won't be bothered by any sound outside your own body.”
He felt the barrier appear around him and was startled by the sudden lack of noise. He closed his eyes and began. The two of them sat for a time while Kal tried to clear his mind in the absolute silence of the barrier. He progressed the silence of the barrier becoming less oppressive, then he could hear the steady rhythm of his heart.
*Thud* *Thud*
*Thud* *Thud*
Deeper he fell into the emptiness guided by the clear rhythm of his heart.
*Thud* *Thud*
*Thud*
And something else…
*Thud*
Suddenly his awareness shifted and he could see an empty blackness. Wherever he was seeing it appeared to be endless. Somehow he was able to move, he could feel the space shift around him but the endless dark never changed. Maybe this is what Melisia was training him for, core visualization. He wasn’t sure if he should be worried that he couldn’t see anything but Melisia did mention it would take some time before he would have any real success. Though he was surprised that he found whatever this space was so easily. The whole experience was quite relaxing despite his lack of findings. Every moment he spent moving through the darkness, it felt like he was slowly growing faster even though there was no frame of reference for his position or that he was moving at all. Time passed, well at least he thought it did. Everything felt so vague but some things seemed to become more present the longer he meditated.
For one, he now had a body. Sort of. It was a reddish-gray cloud that seemed to pulse every once and a while, he found that he could shift portions of it kind of like you would move a limb but he had to directly concentrate on it for it to remain in place. Weird. Kal really had no idea what the significance of this was, but suddenly experiencing things on another level compared to his unascended perception filled him with determination. Since he was able to move the unknown cloud of energy he tried to form it into an object.
What that object should be he wasn’t sure, it would need to be simple. Maybe a shape would do, something flat would probably be easiest. He decided to go with a triangle, he had heard it was one of the strongest shapes and maybe that would have some kind of effect when he was trying to form one. The cloud shifted, swirling in strange motions like it was affected by the wind moving in several different directions.
After several attempts, he figured he was approaching it wrong. Each time he made the attempt the controlled cloud just kind of just dissipated without forming anything besides a slightly denser cloud. Maybe he should start smaller, the current object he was making was about the size of his torso. Well, that’s the size he perceived it at. It could be the size of a city for all he knew, well actually if it was all in his head or core space or whatever wouldn’t that mean it was incredibly tiny? Eh… Whatever. It didn’t matter, all he cared about was that it was a way to grow. He tried again, this time aiming for something about the size of his fist. Again it failed but this time it was much easier to see that it was approaching the shape of a triangle but its edges failed almost immediately, bulging outward allowing the interior to flow outside again. It looked like the edges of the triangle needed to be focused on first. He started moving the cloud into three separate edges but then he remembered what Melisia’s skills looked like.
They were threads, threads that seemed to twist and turn around her core. I’ll give it a shot. Obviously, he still couldn’t see his core but he thought the thread-like structure of the skills was important to what he was trying to do so he began trying to make strands of cloud-stuff. He quickly noticed they grew indistinct, fraying at the edges. Perhaps it was similar to a real thread, and it needed to be twisted together. Running with that idea Kal tried separating multiple tendrils of cloud-stuff and slowly twisting them together. It was slow, and really, really hard. He had only twisted three tendrils together when he got suddenly tired, his focus waning. He decided not to rush it and simply took his time, turning the strands carefully at less than half the pace as before. It felt like another hour had passed before he had finally formed his first thread. Just making that one thread exhausted him but he did it, he was incredibly satisfied with the accomplishment despite having no idea if it would do anything. But now what should he do with it? Cloud-Kal just floated there, thinking.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The thread that he created was only about a finger long. He supposed he could try and simply fold that thread into a triangle shape but he felt that it wouldn’t simply merge together and stay in the shape of a triangle, a circle would probably be easier. Kal manipulated the two ends together slowly. When they touched they reacted as Kal suspected they simply repelled each other he would have to fuse them together. The two ends slowly merged the individual strands of the thread connecting together. It wasn’t perfect though, the whole thread dimmed significantly and he felt his focus wane further as each strand's fusion was completed. But just when Kal thought it might fail the whole thread pulsed a bright crimson red. The crimson ring spun in place for a time before slowly fading away. Kal figured the fusion wasn't perfect causing the shape to lose coherence over time but that didn't stop the feeling of accomplishment that washed over him. As the ring vanished Kal’s mind buzzed. Something had changed.
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Melisia sat patiently watching Kal, she was quite content to let the first attempt be mostly unguided. She always found it to be quite insightful to watch a pupil's first attempt at meditation. Melisia had found that each person's path to a deep meditation was not unique per se but had its own qualities that separated it from other people’s. Hers for example began with several deep breaths and a slow but steady descent into a stable meditation.
Years of practice had made it easier, allowing her to skip many of the steps and achieve a similar yet less stable state. But Kal’s was quite different. It took him about half an hour to clear his mind, but then he immediately dropped into an incredibly deep stage of meditation. She activated Comprehend the Astral Threads and her vision became saturated with thousands of multicolored threads, each with its own fundamental meanings and truths.
They were the astral threads that weave their way through the universe, very few were lucky enough to acquire a skill of a high enough rarity to view them so clearly as Melisia did. It was partly why she was able to gain a position in the seventh tower. She had learned the methods for meditation and core divining in her early studies in the tower; they made it much easier to discern the astral threads that were deeply connected to one's core. Kal seemed to be a natural at meditation, which surprised her. He was a troubled man, and she had thought he would struggle during times like this. Melisia began closely inspecting the strands in the area around the two of them. Astral strands could represent many things such as the connections between friends and family. Others could represent skills and titles a person has gained during their growth; those often only existed near or inside the core of the skill owner. Melisia cycled the relation threads out first, clearing up her vision significantly. It appeared the two of them had very few emotional threads.
It made sense since Melisia spent most of the last decade in her studies and other obligations. She turned her thoughts away from her past not wanting to cloud her reading. Next were the skills and titles, that was easy enough as she had filtered out her own many times in the past. Wait, what is this? Melisia had been about to move onto blessings but noticed a faint crimson thread. It seemed to pulse rhythmically, intrigued she inspected it closer. The thread seemed to coalesce near where Kal’s core should be, of course, that would not be visible at such an early stage as this. As the crimson line pulsed, she could sense a deep connection to Kal through it. It felt almost like a unique variant skill, but something was off. The thread pulsed again, brightly this time and it thickened significantly. Melisia’s eyes widened and a feeling of exhilaration filled her, this was something she had never seen before.
She summoned her journal by reflex and began to draw the thread capturing every detail she could. What was causing the pulse? Was it connected to Kal physically somehow? Yes, she was correct, it pulsed with each beat of his heart. It was incredible, such physical integration for anyone less than level one hundred is undocumented at best and impossible at worst. Perhaps divine intervention is the cause? Melisia shifted her eyes to look for any of the documented divine threads. The basic blessings were all known, but some of the more complex blessings were incredibly difficult to identify as the gods could obfuscate their actions if they wished. She spent several minutes searching but found nothing. Interesting, no discernable thread manipulation. Turning back to the crimson thread her eyes widened, finally she understood. Melisia leaped from her space on the ground and scanned through her bookshelf with one thing on her mind. Birthrights.
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Kal awakened from his meditation and immediately opened his status, that buzzing feeling now radiating through his chest.
You have gained a skill: Soul Forge[Rare]
Processing Acquisition…
Processing…
Core infusement unsuccessful.
Purging…
A wave of joy washed over Kal but was immediately crushed as he kept reading his notifications.
“What the hell was going on? Core infusement failed!”Kal turned to find Melisia expecting the sound barrier to come down but she didn’t hear him and she was currently digging through her bookshelf. Frustrated Kal kept reading as more notifications came.
Purging…
Purging…
Purging Unsuccessful, *&#@$#&#$
Purging failed ?! Kal’s thoughts spiraled. What was happening? He didn’t know skills could even be gained this way, let alone fail to apply. And what did purging mean? Is that what was stopping him from ascending?
Catastrophic Core Damage Detected.
Skill Resonance Detected.
Skill mutation required.
Mutation successful.
You have gained a skill: Soul Forge [Corrupt]
Kal’s mouth hung open, then tears welled up in his eyes. He unlocked a skill. Corrupted but he couldn’t care less. He had finally progressed in a tangible way other than his attributes. He knew then that he would never stop, his path may be difficult. But there was a path nonetheless. With a smile on his face, he read the skills description.
Soul Forge [Corrupt]
You have gained a modicum of control with your soul space, your vision dark and core fractured. You walk fractured into the cosmos, to forge your own path. Corrupted this skill has little effect over your ability to manipulate your soul but grants +5 to Perception, Will, and Wisdom increasing by 1 each level. Tread the dark waters of your soul and forge your own path forward. Your potential Unknown.
Rather ominous, Kal hadn’t heard of a skill description being that vague but he also hadn’t heard of a skill being gained this way either. But those attribute increases were great. Kal expected they were as good as leveling up a mage class. Curious Kal looked at his status again.
Kalum Lesta
Status:
Class: Null
Level: 0
Race: Human
Health: 160
Stamina: 150
Mana: Null
Attributes:
Strength: 20
Agility: 12
Endurance: 15
Vitality: 16
Intellect: 10
Perception: 16
Will: 21
Wisdom: 17
Titles: Null
Skills:
Identify [Inferior], Soul Forge [Corrupt]
Kal smiled, Finally, progress. Kal noticed that Melisia was looking at him, he simply continued smiling and stood. It was time to discuss it all with his mentor.