Noctis maneuvered a simple cut from his flaming sword. Its tip was greatly condensed while the rest of the tang was red from the shared heat. As he sliced the air in half, the fire released, then he concentrated. Instead of the flame releasing in a phantom arc, a thin, shimmering orange line floated in the air. Kenan released his attention, and the line exploded in a violent eruption.

“Line of fire.” Doco suggested. Noctis’ uncle and Jorun were sitting next to a fire some amount of yards away. All three steeds lay a circle around the warmth too. Dion took over Kenan's bedroll.

“Nah. Fire surge.” Jorun commented. He leaned back on Giz, plucking his lute. Against the odds, the bard and stubborn beast had forged a bond in the past few days of traveling.

Noctis prepared the spell once more, but pumped more power into it. After a quick combination of strikes that left three vibrating lines in the air. Kenan released the spell and another bigger explosion was brought forth. The spell needed work. Not only was he already almost out of mana, but he started to edge into mana strain with just three lines. Certain thoughts started to form. Potential. “Afterburn.” Kenan declared

***

With nothing but time on his hands. Noctis had already finished the first book and was starting the second. Kenan impressed himself with the speed, yet, he wasn't sure just how much knowledge he actually retained. Also, the more he read, the greater disdain he was starting to gather for nobility. So much trickery and shyness. For what? To make more money.

Eventually the group had silently communicated to stop. Somehow, mostly everything was said without words or sound during the trip. Save for Jorun’s flute. Somehow, even though the bard plays all day and sometimes into the night. Noctis hadn't heard any of Jorun's soft melodies repeat.

They had taken longer than expected to find a suitable place to make camp. The surrounding area had started to sprout trees and more shrubbery. Already for both Jorun and Kenan. This was the most green that hadn't been tied to grass they had seen in one place.

After Kenan started a fire, they all laid down their bedrolls and cared for the horses. They had taken out the prepared rations. Which was simply bread topped with pork lard. Thankfully Noctis' stomach had stopped dividing into itself when he became stabilized, so he didn't need to pack an extra hundred pounds of food. The flask helped with that too.

Once the food settled, Noctis exited from the fire's embrace. Dion sensed his master's intent and followed. They went to the edge of the flames luminescence and stood across from each other. “Alright. Ready?” Dion woofed.

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Noctis focused on the connection with the dirus. It was messy and endlessly complex. A dominant thread of mana thrummed in brilliance. It twirled around the connection but wasn’t part of it, instead, separated and on it’s own. He sent a signal down it. Not only was it received, but it was reciprocated.

In the next moment, he felt the hair on his skin stand up. A surge of electricity traveled its way from the earring and jolted everything in Kenan’s body. By the time he tried to grip the feeling, it was gone. Then he realized he was standing where Dion was just a moment ago. Noctis checked his core, about an eighth was gone. “That was weird.” Once more, he let his intention be known and they switched places again. Back to their original spots.

***

Kenan was way ahead of the reading schedule. Inside the third book already while only needing five days to do so. On the sixth day of travel. He had seized the liberty of taking a break from the endless manners and small versus big fork when eating salad.

Instead he had opted to take out the dark brown, reddish tome. Blood magic. Almost immediately he forgot the outside world. Didn’t feel the bounce of the horse, or the slight bite caused the wind. Noctis hyper focused and time melted away faster than he could truly comprehend. Soon enough, he was sitting legs crossed next to a campfire at dusk.

Blood magic, despite its name. Didn’t actually call for the control of blood. At least, none outside of your own body. Also, it was pretty much something he already did, but this was on a different and more refined level. With the power in his body, that was separated from the dantian, he held it in reserves at all times. When used, he had a long recharge time before he could go into a big battle again. That was fine and came with the territory until he opened more acupuncture points further down the road.

When he used mana for physical prowess, he quickly pumped a ton of power into his blood, and that would in turn go to his muscles. This tome simply allowed you to make a reserve of infused blood. It had two advantages. First it allowed more power to be packed into the physical body, and secondly, the amount of saturated blood in your system had a passive effect. Making you stronger and your body run smoother. Next came the somewhat crushing disadvantage. Noctis had to actively make new power in meditation. It wasn’t terrible, and Kenan can more than work with that.

It took multiple tries for Noctis to produce a proper blood infusion. The actual introduction of power wasn’t the problem, as he has done that multiple hundred times. What was hard was keeping the power inside a cell. He had to create an equilibrium with each new piece of power. The problem was, there was no exact formula to do it, all of it was done by feel. Once he had gotten the basics, he didn’t fail again. However, the time between each new piece didn’t decrease.

Eventually he got all of the remaining mana in his physical body transformed. This new power was fundamentally different from mana, because it had a more physical base to it. The tome called it Qi, and Kenan was prone to mentally do the same.

Once Noctis opened his eyes, all the others had fallen asleep. The fire was mere embers and it was completely night. The only light were the few lighting bugs here and there. Doin was surprisingly conscious. Not because he didn’t want to sleep, but because he didn’t want to leave his master unattended in an all-focus meditation. “Thank you.” Kenan said. He then rolled into the bedroll while Dion quickly snuggled up close. They both fell asleep swiftly.