“And… done,” Runa said, pulling her hands back from Kevin’s back for the first time in three hours.
Having a tattoo artist with superhuman speed and endurance work on him had been quite an experience, though not one Kevin was eager to repeat anytime soon. Despite Runa’s light touch, the sheer rate at which she moved was extremely unpleasant.
“Look in the mirrors before I speed heal it,” she continued, her voice wandering into the room.
“Right,” Kevin groaned, the tender spots on his back twinging as he slid off the chair.
Looking around, he spied Runa washing her hands in one corner and a pair of mirrors in another. With one on each wall, it provided clear angles for looking at areas normally hidden from sight.
The fresh tattoos were a stark black against his pale skin, each of the eight sections a whirl of patterns and half-hidden symbols. “Wow, ” Kevin said, a grin spreading across his face, “They’re great!”
Given the benefit he was getting, he wouldn’t have complained if the design looked terrible. Instead, the vaguely tribal designs were among the best he’d ever seen; good enough to be worth getting on style alone.
“Is it ready to try?”
Runa’s laughter was a deep, echoing bellow that matched her height if not her more delicate appearance. “Wait until I’ve healed them first, you wouldn’t enjoy the result if you tried now.”
“Got it,” Kevin responded. He was pretty sure tattoos could take weeks, or even longer, to heal back home, yet she could heal it moments after completion. It was crazy to think how mystical abilities could have such an effect on everyday life.
Runa’s Wood aspected healing Qi felt like a double shot of coffee injected straight into his veins; a vibrant, almost frantic energy that sent stinging pulses through his back.
Then it was done, the fresh tattoos no more painful than the bare skin before them.
“Give it a whirl. I’ll monitor to ensure there are no issues,” Runa said from behind him. “Visualize the eight tattoo flags forming a pattern that draws energy through your skin.”
Kevin nodded but kept silent. Closing his eyes, he focused as instructed. It was surprisingly easy after his work on the Sealed Land Method. Before he’d had to create the image out of nothing, this was based on real art he’d seen firsthand.
There was also a stranger, mystical aspect to these tattoos. Almost as soon as he’d begun, they sprung fully formed into his mind. Each visualized flag started to glow, creating a grid of faint lines.
The formation grew in strength with continued focus, and within a few moments, motes of Qi were drawn toward it as if magnetized. Some were repelled, others were transmuted, losing part of their volume, while a few passed straight through.
Nor was this purely an imaginary experience; Kevin could feel his free-floating Qi levels rising with every second that passed. Far faster than his passive level of Qi gain, even faster than absorbing the spirit fruit.
Perhaps that was to be expected, with it requiring his active attention, but it was still incredible. If he split his cultivation time between this and the spiritual void technique, he would have a sustainable process at last.
The more time he spent on it, the more progress he would see.
“Thank you so much, Runa,” Kevin breathed, slowly blinking his eyes open. “Seriously, this is a life changer.”
“Ah… don’t worry about it, just doing my job,” Runa stood awkwardly, scratching the back of her head as a light flush spread across her cheeks. “I should be thank you, I don't get to try out new formations that often.”
Kevin raised an eyebrow, unable to see how that could be equated to fixing a massive hole in his cultivation potential. Still, it would be rude to argue. “Then let’s just thank each other,” he continued, holding an arm out.
Runa nodded, clearly recovering her composure as she reached out to clasp arms. After a few moments, Kevin stepped back and gave a low bow. “Well then, if nothing else needs to be done, I’d better get going.”
“I’ve already kept May here long enough,” he finished, turning towards her corner to give another bow to his guide.
“Too right you have,” May snorted, an annoyed tone in her voice as she rose from her cross-legged cultivation pose. “And I’m not even done yet; we still need to go all the way back to the outer sect and visit your quarters.”
With only a nod at her fellow inner sect disciple, she strode for the door with such speed that he’d have to jog to catch up. It seemed she’d run out of patience.
Waving goodbye to Runa, Kevin hurried to follow.
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It was already growing dark by the time they left the Formations building, despite the hour not even reaching six yet. Dusk came early on Twisted Peak, as the sun dipped behind the peak to the east.
No wonder May was annoyed. In thanks for staying so long, Kevin kept quiet as they hustled back through the inner sect, and over the strange boundary to the outer one. There they continued, moving past almost every building until they were almost back at the beginning.
Only a single building over from the temporary accommodation structure he’d stayed in was another marked ‘Outer Disciple Dorms.’ May checked something on a piece of paper drawn from her sleeve, before gesturing him to the door.
“Press your hand here,” she said, gesturing to the symbol on the frame. “Then ask for Floor Twelve, Eastern wing, and state your name.”
Was that all she’d been doing at the other buildings? He’d been so sure it was some secret security magic. Somewhat let down, Kevin followed her instructions and watched as the symbol lit up below his hand.
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A considerable portion of his sealed land's energy reserves was drawn out as he did so, but he imagined it wouldn’t even be noticed by someone more advanced. If not for his new method of cultivation, doing this every time he entered a building would have been daunting.
Now he could relax and watch the energy flow out of storage, through his body, and out of his palm. This was the precision he’d have to replicate if he wanted to use techniques.
When studying the Twisted Step movement technique, he’d thought it would be almost impossible without a meridian network, yet the process seemed to work fine here. Was it just because of the door’s array or formation guiding the process?
Or was it simpler than he’d thought? While he hoped for the latter, Kevin couldn’t help worrying that it was the former. Experiments would need to be done once he had access to enough Qi.
“The staff will have made a room up, and added a nameplate for you,” May said, her arms crossed, her foot tapping on the stone tiles. “Rent is covered as long as you pay tuition, but a larger room or more amenities can be added for an additional cost.”
Her voice had gone flat as if repeating something she’d memorized by rote. “If you have trouble with one of your neighbors, try to solve it yourself before complaining to anyone. We’re all adults here, and no one has time for petty problems.”
“There is a dining room in each wing of the first floor which you can access the same way. Most buildings also have at least a lunch cafeteria. Three meals a day are again covered.”
May released her arms and turned to leave as her spiel wound down. “Then, if there’s nothing else, I need to be going.”
There were other things he wanted to know, but May’s posture screamed that he’d better not have more questions. Instead, he waved her off, “Nothing I can’t figure out. Thank you for all your help today.”
Without further acknowledgment, she was gone, vanishing so fast he couldn’t even get a look at her movement technique.
Kevin stared at the long hallway visible through the doorway, before shaking his head and stepping back. After a few moments, the door slid shut again, and he repeated the process to access the Eastern wing dining room.
It had been another long day, and with everything that had happened, he’d once again skipped lunch.
The massive dining room was like a restaurant, with tables set for two, four, or eight people. About half were already occupied, and several groups had pushed tables together to form larger seating arrangements.
At his best guess, there had to be a hundred people in here, an impressive number considering this was only one of the four outer sect dining rooms. If you considered the number of people who would visit over the whole evening, it was even more impressive.
Then again, about two hundred people tried to join in this single test. From what Travis had said, this was the off-season one as well, the spring test in six months would be even larger.
With most disciples staying for at least a year before moving to the inner sect or being forced out, the numbers would build up without even counting the ones that remained year after year.
To Kevin’s relief, plenty of people were seated alone at the two-person tables. Building some social connections would be important, but he was itching to try out some proper cultivation.
He just wanted to eat as quickly as possible before moving to his room. Each seat in the hall had a menu that pulsed to his spiritual sense. After fiddling with it for a minute, Kevin realized it was a mechanism for ordering food.
Much like those QR codes that had taken over the food industry back home just before he’d ended up stuck in hospital. Ordering a stew with bread, he found the wait time was less than ten minutes before his meal arrived.
The meal was delicious, filling, and had a trace of Qi laced through it. Much like the meals he’d eaten during testing, it would help push him forward a little further.
It was also a reminder that he could access cultivation resources somewhere; he’d have to look into that tomorrow. While the Qi he’d get from them might not match using his new tattoo, he would always appreciate gains with no effort required.
Kevin didn’t linger after finishing his meal, only nodding at the people who called out greetings as he wandered back outside. A few faces were familiar, though Gerard was the only name he knew; it looked like he was far from the only one in his group to make the last cut.
Opening the door to his door floor for the second time, he hurried down the hallway, eyes skating over templates until he found his own a little over halfway down. The entire door glowed when he reached out to push on it, then faded as it swung inward.
Inside was a short hallway with a shoe stand and a coat rack, which led into a lounge room larger than his one back in Ostale. Several doors led off from it, but Kevin ignored them for now.
It was time to cultivate, and he couldn’t stand to put it off for one more moment.
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The room held a four-person lounge and two comfortable-looking single chairs, but Kevin felt drawn to a plush, square mat in the center of the room. Large enough for several people, it looked custom-designed for meditation.
Given where he was, it almost certainly was a cultivation mat. Whether it would provide any benefit, he couldn’t tell, but it was worth a try. Settling into the center, Kevin crossed his legs to the somewhat embarrassing limit of his flexibility and closed his eyes.
Within a few breaths his mind had settled, and he began by gaging the quantity of Qi floating about in his body.
That was the key indicator he had to get used to checking. Too little Qi and he risked organ failure, while too much risked a rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, and even emotional instability.
With his time practicing in Ostale, Kevin had become more than familiar with the drooping sensation of too little Qi. He was a little beyond that from the meal and his brief practice in Runa’s workshop.
At best, it would be enough for a few minutes of the spiritual void technique, and there was a lot of room for more energy. Tattoo time it was then.
Shifting his focus to the patterns on his back, Kevin again visualized them forming the formation grid. This time it was even easier than the first, and within moments he was drawing in motes of Qi.
The energy here was less plentiful than in Runa’s workshop — it was almost sparse — but that only made sense when you considered he was now in the outer sect. Of course, there would be less Qi here, it worked that way in every cultivation story he’d ever read.
Back in the capital, Travis had suggested that groups of cultivators would drain the energy of an area. Given he was in a cultivator dorm building, he could imagine many others joining him in evening practice.
Perhaps there were dedicated cultivation areas he could look into booking? According to Runa, his tattoo would filter Fire or Earth aspected Qi for him, so an area rich in those types might speed up the process.
Did that mean his aspect was one of those types? The idle thought sent his visualization stuttering for a moment before Kevin forced his mind back to a single thought. This wasn’t for planning, this was a time for advancement.
Moment by moment energy flowed in, until his breaths became faster, and the rapid thump of his heart became audible. The rush of Qi entering his body was addictive, but Kevin managed to pull back at the early warning signs.
Blinking his eyes open, he checked the clock hanging on one wall. It would have been clearer if he’d thought to get an exact time before sitting down, but at a rough guess, he’d been at it for close to an hour.
If that proved consistent, he could make this a lot simpler by getting a timer. Eager to move on to advancement practice, and to get some of this excess Qi out of his body, he closed his eyes again.
Only to snap them open a moment later. With his practice in Ostale, he should be close to the third grade. The last time he’d been caught unprepared, and the results had not been kind to his carpet.
This time, he could be better prepared. Forcing himself to wait, Kevin wandered the apartment until he found the spacious bathroom. Stripping down, he sank into a seated position in the bath facing the drain.
Closing his eyes again, he focused on the empty void within his sealed land. The now abundant energy in his body reacted easily, flowing into his dome at a steady rate. Minutes passed as the sealed land swelled until it reached a threshold and expanded.
Vitality and wellness surged through Kevin’s body, while his stomach rebelled and sent a spray of gunk across the base of his bath. He’d done it; Third grade of the first stage.
A single day in the sect, and he’d done what he couldn't in two weeks back in Ostale.
He hadn’t even started classes yet; what heights would he reach in the days to come?