I was sitting outside, meditating as the cold air flowed into my lungs invigorating me. I had no idea how to teach my brother and the girls how to access their Ki. I'd only figured it out because I could see it, trying to get them to move something they couldn't see. My way of utilizing Ki was completely different from the way they'd become accustomed to.

With a frown, I stretched out to the fist sized rocks around me and began to revolve them around my body. Mediation required me to empty my thoughts, I'd gotten to the point that I could easily do so, but doing so didn't solve my problem. A little telekinesis practice was a good way to focus my mind.

"Alex?" a voice came from nearby and I turned my head to see the Ki outline of Mary. She nodded towards me "I couldn't stay asleep"

"Not fluffy enough?" I asked grinning as I raised the rocks around me, allowing her to step closer and sit before me.

She shook her head "No, it was fine, I just couldn't sleep. Too much thinking going on"

I chuckled. Mary and I were very alike, though unlike me, she enjoyed being around people though her passions were sometimes hard to understand at times. She was an intellectual, one who had to analyze and examine everything around her. People often found it hard to deal with her when she became like that, obsessed with something other people didn't care about.

It was how we'd met. She'd been interested in twins and the fact that Max and I were so different intrigued her. Max naturally drew people in and I honestly believed that he deserved the roll of a Hero. People looked up to him. I did as well.

In the beginning, it'd been him talking to Mary, answering her questions. I actually avoided her whenever she wanted to talk to me, she was so in my face about stuff that my antisocial personality shunned her. Now though, I was glad she had that personality. She'd become a close friend as she constantly arrived to talk to me. She often talked to me about her problems as well. Max was fun to be around, but I understood her when she complained about people not wanting to be around her.

People assumed that I was like my brother and when they found out I wasn't, they tended to avoid me as I avoided them.

"Seems we are still on the same wavelength, I've been thinking as well" I said "What is on your mind"

"Your staff. Your...companions? You. This!" she swung her hand around at the rocks that floated around us "I've gotten pretty good and knowing when someone is using magic, but this...there is no magic being used. It is so interesting. Are you hiding your magic? Or is there some other thing I am not getting?" she began to talk a mile a minute as she went over our battle, specifically about my use of magic and ability to do things without magic.

To stop her, I reached forwards and flicked her forehead "One thing at a time" I said "We'll start with the basics. You are smarter than the others so you might actually understand" I chuckled "I guess I'll tell you about Ki"

"Ki?" she asked "That martial arts stuff?" it was easy for her to pick up on alright. She'd gone through a phase of trying to understand the physical body and how exorcise and martial arts effected the reflexes.

"Kind of, that stuff came from somewhere else. Ki is the body's energy" I tapped at the base of my stomach "It rests right here, in most people it is about the size of the edge of a fingernail but with some practice you can grow it"

"How do you grow it?" even without seeing her face, I knew that she was making small notes in her mind about everything I said.

"Mana" I grinned as I spoke and answered her next question before she could ask it "Mana is the energy of the universe, everything that isn't alive is made up of Mana, the air we breath, the land we are sitting on, the stars in the sky, everything. Our bodies naturally absorb small amounts of this Mana and over time change it into Ki.

However, most living beings can't control their Ki and lose a large portion of it daily, though normal physical actions. This offsets the growth they achieve through absorbing Mana. With practice, a person can learn to contain their Ki inside of their body, preventing that loss"

Or it could be stopped from flowing out of them. Whatever the Deity had done to them, it prevented their Ki from leaving their body. I couldn't completely understand it, but it did seem to be another thing I'd have to fix.

"What about the staff? and these rocks? How are you doing it for so long?" she asked and I could imagine her eyes as they sparkled.

"Once you know how, Ki becomes easier and easier to move around, even to the point of having it leave your body. I can use my Ki to move these rocks around, but my staff is special. I spent a while filling it with my Ki, replacing the Mana inside of it until it was connected to me. Your staff is the same way actually, but..." I shook my head. She wasn't aware of how to use her Ki so her staff was as inert as if it'd been filled with Mana.

"I'll get to that stuff later. First, we have to get you to understand your Ki" I held out my hand to her.

"What?" she asked, clearly not getting my intention.

"Hold my hand. With contact, it is easy to connect my Ki to yours" she flinched slightly at that.

"I-isn't that a little intimate?" she asked "If what you are saying is true, my Ki is me, everything I am...if we connect our Ki, that is like connecting our souls" even without my sight, I could tell she was blushing.

Rolling my eyes, I reached forwards and grabbed her hand "Of course it is intimate, but it isn't like it means anything big. It is just two friends sharing something special" I actually couldn't think of a better way to say it. It was damn intimate and the only other being I'd shared my Ki with was the Gaian. It was kind of hard to feel anything special for a boulder. I wasn't really sure about Artemis, she hadn't actually connected her Ki to mine, just used hers to examine my body. I shook that thought out of my head.

"W-well...will it let you read my thoughts?" I blinked at that. It was an obvious thought, connecting Ki was like connecting your mind and soul to another's so of course you'd share thoughts.

"Well...yes...but only if I actually attempt to and I'd have to use my Ki to examine your brain. I'm not going to be doing that, just examining your Ki source" I had to admit that I was a little curious. I wondered what she was hiding...

But of course I wasn't going to go looking. Not even the much stronger Gaian had been able to hide the fact that it was going through my mind so I definitely couldn't do it secretly. Besides, she was my friend and that would be wrong. Unless she was in danger, I wouldn't do something like that.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She nodded before taking a breath "Ok, lets do this. What do I do?"

"Nothing, just close your eyes and relax" as she did so, I focused my Ki through my palm and into hers. No resistance what so ever. That was bad. Anyone who trained their Ki would at least automatically probe the invading Ki. It was like an immune system, if the invading Ki held malevolent intent, it would do it's best to force it out. Her Ki was like a quiet stream. If I wanted to, I felt sure I could completely destroy her from the inside out.

Gently, I connected my Ki to hers. Flashes of thought raced across the connection for a moment as she suddenly became aware of my Ki inside of her. That was good. It was the same as my time with the Gaian. Before experiencing another being's Ki, I hadn't been able to feel my own. Afterwards, it was as easy as breathing.

"Now you can feel it right?" I asked her gently.

She nodded "It feels weird though...like feeling two bodies at the same time"

I chuckled and nodded "Yeah, it takes some getting used to. Now, do your best to follow my Ki, I'll show you where the source is" I began to move my Ki through her body, up her arm and towards her spine. It was weird, I'd never been on the giving side of this action, guiding the less developed party.

Eventually we came upon her Ki wisp. I was looking at her stomach as I did this, watching as my Ki gently circled the wisp. It was so...wrong. Once I was actually capable of examining it, I could feel her actual wisp within the other connected ones. They were just fragments, obeying the main wisp.

"Why does it feel...wrong?" she asked me and I felt her Ki become agitated slightly.

"The monsters you've killed, the times you've 'leveled up', have added new Ki to your body like a quilt of Ki. The problem is that it isn't your Ki, not completely. That is why it feels wrong"

"What!" I felt her only become more agitated as she swung her other hand in an attempt to access her status screen. After she attempted to do so several more times, she looked at me, obviously worried "Why doesn't it work?"

"Because the one giving you those screens isn't here right now" I said bluntly. It was better I told her now.

"What do you mean?" she asked "Isn't it a Hero thing. One of the great skills given to all Heroes?"

"No..." I sighed, making a face at that. It was so...unintelligent of her "There exist actual Gods and most of the time they only care about their own worlds. Often times, they'll summon a Hero, or Heroes, to protect their world"

She began to calm down and nodded at my words "Yeah...sorry. That makes sense. The priest we met when we were summoned told us that their God had accepted us as their saviors, but the screen?"

"That God's work. Since you are the only four it needs to focus on, it could easily create an adaptive system to quickly grow your strength. However, it was limited, borrowing the energy from other beings to help you 'level up' after a battle. That is why your Ki is so messed up"

She sighed and nodded "Those bursts of energy when we leveled up and when we picked our attributes"

"The God was moving your Ki to benefit those areas"

She nodded before looking at me quickly "Wait...that God was watching us all the time...but I.." a romantic feeling shot through our connection.

I blushed slightly before shaking my head "Don't worry, from the way that God acted, it didn't seem that concerned with human affairs" I shifted my attention away from her face and continued to examine her Ki "Now, I think I can break away the other Ki from your original one but...that would basically make you a normal human again and with the way things are going, doing so won't fix the problem. Once you go back, you'll just be under the God's influence again"

So I began to think. How could I help them keep getting stronger, despite the extra Ki that was being tacked on....

Blood Ki! Well, not that Ki exactly, but the way it reacted to other Ki. It devoured it and changed it to its own form. But that couldn't just be a Blood Ki aspect. All Ki responded to one's desire, if I used my Ki to trap and consume an invading Ki, I could probably add someone else's strength to my own.

"Ok, we are going to try something" I said searching the patchwork of her Ki before finding a relatively weak Ki. It must've belonged to a weak monster or something "Feel the Ki I am touching?"

She nodded and I felt her original Ki respond, moving slowly to where mine was "It is difficult to move it" she said softly. I was still impressed, moving Ki wasn't easy to begin with.

"Focus on the other Ki, focus on the desire of making it your own, of consuming it and making it your strength" I spoke softly, using my voice to lull her into a kind of meditation. Hypnotism was surprisingly easy when I was connected to another person's Ki. As she listened to my voice, I continued to nudge her Ki in the right direction, gently imbuing the intent into hers.

It worked, slowly, but it excited me to watch as her Ki slowly began to devour the first patch of Ki. One of the good thing about this system the Deity had set up was that their body was used to a large amount of Ki so they'd grow quickly as they absorbed the Ki into their own.

The more the Ki became theirs, the more likely that they'd be able to begin fixing the problems that plagued them. The skills that had been shoved into them would truly become theirs as they understood more and more about themselves. I needed to focus even more so I gently set the rocks down.

An hour passed but I didn't let Mary rest, using my own Ki to sustain her body as she focused on making the Ki her own. Since it was the smallest, it was easily absorbed until there was nothing left of that small Ki. Her original Ki had doubled to the size of a finger nail in the process. I guessed that having the Ki already be refined allowed it to be absorbed quickly.

Given the fact that the original user of the Ki was long dead, there was almost no fighting back. Heroes seemed to be very lucky. Even with a Deity like Artemis, they still had the backing of a God, one that would protect them while allowing them to grow in strength. They were chosen by beings with great power, to protect worlds.

I was only a little jealous. I didn't want to be in the spot light, but the benefits were certainly something to be envious of. Enchanted weapons, powerful armor, the backing of that world's strongest groups. Even if those groups wanted to use someone, they'd at least slather on the praise and benefits.

Despite being so screwed up by the Deity of that world, my brother and friends had a wide open path to grow stronger. The Deity had done most of the hard work for them. They had skills and strong bodies, all they had to do was learn to control their Ki and their strength would triple.

Though I understood that their Ki would always be limited by their experiences. It took me longer to grow strong, but it took them longer to understand how a skill worked.

I felt a shift in Mary's Ki, causing me to look at her face. Her Ki was flowing with excitement as she looked over my shoulder towards my home. I realized something. The romantic feelings of love that I'd been flowing from her Ki to mine hadn't been because of me, she'd just been embarrassed I'd find out about her real interest. Well, it wasn't hard to guess, Max looked just like me so of course she'd feel some things when talking to me.

I turned my head, looked behind me and froze. Wow, had I ever been more wrong.

"What is up guys?" Alice smiled as she bounced up to us, looking down as she stood before us "You seemed to be busy so I didn't want to bother you, but it seems like you are done now" she looked towards our clasped hands.

Mary quickly pulled her hand away as I pulled my Ki back into my own body. I caught a single image before doing so, the image was so powerful it had flooded her Ki and by extension mine as well.

Two girls kissing under a moonlit sky. Alice and Mary...wow. I really hadn't expected that. The intent behind the image was so great that even I felt affected by her love for the blond brawler. I was happy for them of course, but in all the time I'd known them, I'd never even considered the idea.

"Ah..." it seemed Mary had also realized what had just gone through her Ki. Being aware of her Ki made her more aware of what went through it too "Alex...don't...say anything to Max and Rein....we haven't told them yet"

"Mary!" Alice squeaked in embarrassment "How could you tell Alex!?"

"I'll...let you explain it to her. Don't try to attempt what I did, you could do serious damage to her" I warned Mary before standing up. I left, leaving the two lovers to their conversation. I needed to prepare breakfast anyway.

Damn...I only just now realized how much I'd missed being in a relationship with someone...those two made me more envious than I'd been of their Hero benefits.