The men talked on the way back to collect the dead. Rumors flew around and were ultimately confirmed that the Neon Lights leadership had been just as afraid of back stabbing by their own forces as of fighting the allied forces directly. Leavery summed it up nicely. "And a good thing too. If those monsters had actually attacked the convoy after 1st platoon moved to reinforce the 2ed then we might very well have lost that battle."
Those words were a shocking realization. They were like a bucket of cold water being doused over the troops who felt like celebrating the recent victory. Not that there were many who felt like celebrating before that. Most of those in the convoy had some manor of military like training but the reality of going into battle against honest to god magical powers had shaken more than a few of them.
They hadn't let it show during the battle. They couldn't. There was no time for it. It was fight, kill and live or be swept aside by the tide of battle and fall into oblivion. But now, on the ride back and while collecting their fallen. The stress and reality of the horror they had just endured was hitting home. Grown ass men openly wept and no one could blame then for it.
The whole convoy returned to the gated community that resided on the other side of the main road from where the Congressional Militias base was. A real top tier gated community where some of the wealthiest and most influential people in the county lived, before magic had become a thing. Maik learned that the school across the street had primarily been just for the scions of these wealthy families.
Nobody wanted to split up after getting back. Everyone had wounded and half of the force was still suffering from the effects of the drug laced mental attacks.
Support staff had done a lot of work cleaning up the blood and bodies in the schools main building. There were also the smaller portable buildings and the church on the south end of the compound. Sleeping bags and other make shift bedding were provided, as well as a hot meal. A guard rotation was then set up and Maik took part in the first watch. The lilin finally got to lay their head down at just after 4 in the morning, bone tired in body, mind and soul.
The mental construct of Maik's potential and growth. We should be happier to be here. Eagerness for strength. Jesus ! Sense when did you manifest here ? Getting crowded in here. It would seem that just as Primal has become more cognizant so too has Body politic. Not taking my job. Well I'm the creative one so I'm not worried. Dislike speak.... But. Need strength. No more race change. We already went over this last night. I think Body politic is saying that we've been doing a bad job of managing our powers. Everyone a critic. We got this. I observe. Make sure. ...Fine.
Maik's collective consciousness went about going through the notifications.
Tier 4 Special trait advanced - Enhanced biological resource processing – Capable + 14 alteration points. + 6 to Endurance
Tier 4 Special trait advanced – Enhanced biological resource processing – Intermediate. + 21 alteration points + 9 to Endurance.
Tier 5 skill acquired - Chi binding - Beginner + 8 alteration points
Tier 5 skill Acquired - Chi Item infusion - Beginner + 8 alteration points + 3 Chi
Tier 4 skill advanced - Chi body infusion. - Intermediate + 21 alteration points
Congratulations. You have accumulated a sufficient combination of divers magical energy and experience manipulating those energies to advance to level 6. Level up. As a [human / Lilin : Bio-Morph] you gain 36 alteration points.
Congratulations ! You and your allies are victorious in a moderate scale battle. Your contributions have awarded you with 1280 XP.
Congratulations ! You and your allies are victorious in a small scale battle. Your contributions have awarded you 625 XP.
Congratulations ! You and your allies are victorious in a small scale battle. Your contributions have awarded you 625 XP.
Tier 4 skill advanced - Chi sight - Intermediate + 21 alteration points.
Tier 3 skill advanced - Magic resistance minor - Capable + 12 alteration points. + 12 Aura.
Tier 4 Special trait Advancement - Magic sense - Capable + 14 alteration points. + 12 Perception.
Congratulations. You have accumulated a sufficient combination of divers magical energy and experience manipulating those energies to advance to level 7. Level up. As a [human / Lilin : Bio-Morph] You gain 42 alteration points.
Tier 3 skill advanced - Bio chemistry - Intermediate + 18 alteration points.
Tier 5 Special trait Advancement - Flesh molding - Capable + 16 alteration points.
Tier 5 skill advanced - Chi force projection - Beginner + 8 alteration points.
Congratulations ! You and your allies are victorious in a moderate scale battle. Your contributions have awarded you with 1950 XP
Tier 3 skill advanced - Magic resistance minor - Intermediate + 18 alteration points. + 18 Aura
The various aspects of the lilins being had just as varied reactions. One simply tallied the total with analytical detachment. By my count that makes 249 alteration points for us to use. Another gawked. Holly crap. That's gotta be like... half as many points as all the other levels combined... right ? There was the impatient one. Enough already. lets spend some points. And the new one with a new agenda. Half go in Durability.
There was haggling and discussion but the Body politic would not budge on its demands. Not one inch. 125 points went into Durability, leaving 124 for the other 3 to use. 15 points went into Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Perception each. The remaining 64 points were divided evening between Chi and aura.
Durability had gone from Maik's lowest stat, all the way up to the 3ed highest. That was really saying something sense Maik had pretty much estimated that 180 was pushing the limit of what a tier 3 life form could obtain without sacrificing a lot in all the other stats. Now Maik had 5 stats that were over that threshold now. The lilin accepted the changes before drifting down into a deep sleep.
Maik was allowed almost 7 glorious hours of sleep before being rousted at 11AM and the lilin totally forgot about their groggy state with they were presented with a toothbrush to clean their teeth with. Maik had been suffering dirty mouth feel for days now and would never complain about mother pestering the teen to brush their teeth ever again.
By 12 O'clock the lilin was properly fed well groomed and dressed in fresh clean clothes, all at once, for the first time sense magic had become a thing. Of course there was an aid waiting for Maik. "Chi instructor. If you would be so kind as to follow me ? The assembled leadership wishes to speak with you."
A fem minutes later the lilin was being driven to the gated community across the street before arriving at the largest house Maik had ever seen. Along the way Maik had inquired about Eugene and been informed that while the super sized Mexican had been his usual bullet magnet self, he had survived and was well on his way to recovery.
Inside the mansions main dining area was an elegant and massive table capable of seating 18 people comfortably and the senior members of each Militia group to assist in the battles yesterday were in attendance. Well, most of them anyway. Jamal didn't make it. Rest in peace Jamal.
Introductions were made and it seemed that a fellow Named Blair Thompson had taken Jamal's place for the Black Pumas. The man seemed to have fully recovered from the mental attack that took him out of the fight last night. He had been leading the left flank when it was hit by the Neon lights illusionist. That and many other facts were being outlined in the after action report where the allied leadership worked to peace together what worked, what didn't and how to improve so that they did better in the future.
Maik listened with rapped attention, their collective consciousness letting Analytical take the drivers seat. Creative noted down everything being presented while Analytical organized the information and Primal stacked and sorted the data. It was clear that the assembled leaders had already gone over most, if not all of this information but wanted Maik's input on several matters.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It only took the combined efforts of the lilins various aspects a few moments to formulate an answer. "Given the mental state of those few I connected with using sending, there is significant danger in attempting the same approach as the Neon Lights to rapidly advancing our Chi skills. However, it is not unheard of for practitioners to use earthly treasures to bolster enlightenment. This means natural means. herbs or mushrooms only. None of the synthesized stuff. Even then I would only recommend that one use such methods after having studied the path they want to take so that they have a clear objective in mind for their advancement."
It had become clear by the presentation that the idea of using drugs to rapidly advance one magical ability or even gain new Chi skills was enticing and they were looking for way to capitalize on the potential.
However the lilin needed to rain on their parade. "In fact, I believe that utilizing earthly treasures is something one should hold off on until they have reached the Intermediate skill level in several Chi skills. That should give them enough understanding of how their power works to properly direct the flow of energy so that it should not degrade their minds, as it clearly did for those of the Neon Lights."
It wasn't what they wanted to hear but further explanation and sharing of technique helped to mitigate their concerns. Ultimately they requested that the Trilogy not only provide ample copies of the original training guide but follow up guides on the more advanced steps to take.
This lead to an amazing discovery when they radioed the Mellveiw high school, home base of the trilogy. Apparently Jose had been putting his knowledge in computer science to good use. Working with skip and Sara they had developed a new Tier 3 Chi skill. They called it Chi Data packet and it allowed one to form a seemingly perfect memory that could be downloaded to another persons mind, using the sending skill.
Such a skill would be a game changer for the whole alliance, allowing for the spread of knowledge about Chi skills at an exponential rate. True it wouldn't grant the skill at beginner rank like direct tutelage from Maik would, but that method was very limited and demand was just too high. There had already been a couple heated debates about who should get first dibs on being taught directly by the Chi instructor and if such a breakthrough had not been found then even the leadership of the allied forces might have started fighting among themselves.
It was also then that Maik learned of how the school wasn't defenseless and members of the local Mormon church had come to extend protection while the bulk of the advanced Chi users went to aid the congressional Militia.
The whole thing was almost overwhelming to Maik. More and more people were regaining mobility throughout the area as more vehicles were refitted to work without electronics. There had apparently been 2 other gangs who had followed much the same path as the Neon Lights, though with less success. There was just so much happening all around the county which the teen had grown up in that one would never know about unless they were standing in the main information hub run by the local mayor.
Status reports, information documents and map updates were being arranged or organized by a small army of staff tasked with collecting, organizing and make sense of it all. The meeting was concluded with a decision to send a convoy over to transport the three young Chi skill inventors up to this fine mansion. This had given Maik time enough to roam about the information hub while taking it all in and the lilin even boosted their intelligence, perception, smarts and wisdom attributes to help understand it all. At 60 Chi per minute for each attribute boosted it was pretty expensive.
By the time of their friends arrival Maik had a complete and comprehensive understanding of the local political, financial and military situation within the Darrion County area.
Having the information about the skill downloaded into Maik's mind only took about 18 seconds but... it was trippy. Sights, sounds, thoughts, sensory information and concepts flooded the lilins consciousness and Maik could only hold onto their mental seat during whole wild ride. Applying the knowledge afterward into forming the skill took a little longer, a little under 12 minutes.
Tier 3 skill acquired - Chi data packet - Beginner
Distill Memories down into an interface compatible data packet that can be downloaded into the mind of a willing life form via another skill capable of transmitting mental information.
That fact that its designated as interface compatible raises... questions. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We have higher priorities to contend with at present.
Maik got to work forming a Chi data packet, which turned out to be a more Chi intensive process then the lilin had though it would be. At least at first. Creating the data packet was the most Chi intensive part but once the packet was produced it was relatively cheep to download the information. At Maik's current skill they could only hold 1 data packet in mind at a time though so everyone was getting a detailed orientation on the Chi manipulating skill first. "The foundation is important."
The Chi instructor made the rounds, uploading the information of the skill into the minds of just over 100 people, all those still alive who had directly participated in taking down the Neon Lights, The main support staff, plus Jose, Skip and Sara. Creating the data packet had only cost Maik 47 Chi but each person needed another 18 Chi for Maik to complete the upload every time they uploaded it to another person.
With a line queued up it only took the lilin a little over 30 minutes to impart the knowledge but then Maik wanted to take a quick break to cultivate and replenish their Chi before moving on to the next skill.
Sense this was kind of a slow day the lilin took the chance to experiment further with their cultivation. Looking inward and then expanding their view of their center. The lilin focused on the clockwise rotation of the liquid density energy being collected there. Zooming in closer on the center, Maik took some of the collected energy and began to pull it in the opposite direction, spinning it counterclockwise. At the same time, the lilin began twirling the energy and condensing it further into a strand of energy that they then began to wrap about itself in the center, like a ball of yarn.
However, if any of the Yarn ever reached the very center, then it would be fed into Maik's Chi bar, filling it with even greater speed then before.
Tier 4 skill advanced - Cultivation, Chi – Intermediate
An hour later and Maik was back at it. This time forming a data packet for the Main & body skill to the intermediate level. "This skill empowers and improves everything and is a must have." At this point there was also another welcome notification.
Tier 3 skill advanced - Chi data packet - Capable
Maik was pleased to see that they could now hold 2 different data packets in their mind space and could thus download multiple skills at a time to the participants. However each of those downloads took 18 seconds a pop and a little over 2700 Chi for all the 100 and some odd participants. Maik was right back down to 621 Chi in the tank and needed to take yet another break to cultivate.
None of the leaders minded the delay as despite being versed in using traditional Qigong already. For Maik's own unique adaptation of cobbled together bits provided a lot a insight and inspiration for their own techniques. The addition of the Mind & body skill further gave them all a lot to practice with and explore improvements on for themselves while the Chi instructor recovered. In short, everyone was plenty busy.
In fact, they were busy enough that after a third round where Maik downloaded the sending skill into all the collected members that many were saying that they had plenty enough to keep them busy for a good while. Another meeting was joined and a new routine was proposed where specialists would travel between disparate locations to transfer skills from one group to another.
That idea was quickly squashed when Maik revealed that the whole reason that they were able to provide so much to so many was the fact that they possessed over three and a half thousand Chi to work with.
Or so Maik had expected but most of the members at the table had been practitioners before magic was a thing themselves and while Maik's numbers were high, many of them had put most of the alteration points gained in the last days battles into Chi. This meant most of them were hovering around 2100 Chi.
By this point it was well after 6 and Maik was both tired and hungry. Having repeatedly depleted their Chi reserves throughout the day had the lilin felling like they had run a marathon and the assembled leadership were understanding of the Chi instructors limits. Probably only because their satisfied with their gains thus far. Don't be like that. Positive vibes man.
Lodgings within the mansion were offered to the lilin but Maik declined, preferring to return to the Compound on the hill that had been a school before magic was a thing to spend prized time with their friends. The mayor them self tried to insist but the lilin politely declined with a smile and a wave. A young man, not much older than Maik escorted the lilin back to the compound where Maik was finally able to relax with their friends.
James, as usual, was the first to speak up. "Hay man, come grab a seat. Damn, I though for sure you were going to take one look at one of the comfy beds in that mansion and forget all about us for the night."
Maik knew he was just teasing and replied with a wry smile. "I would just resent the sleeping bags all the more the following morning. Besides, if I tried to sleep over there then somebody would probably try to pick my brain in the middle of the night or worse." The lilin collected some dinner and then plopped down to join the group.
They talked about pleasant things. Jose, Skip and Sara dominating the conversation by excitedly sharing what they had learned about the interface during their experiments and their hopes for the future.
Jose leading the explanation. "So. Were not really sure why. But it seems that the system, you know, that the interface is using, well its based upon our computer science technology. 64 bit, binary code, um, order of operations sequencing, all that jazz. Well whats really wild is that were pretty sure that the system that the interface uses runs off your own, or... each person ? The individual using the skill. Their mental capability, their Intelligence attribute. We think it determines how capable, or advance the function of a persons interface is. Maybe even how much its able to show you, or do for you."
The young mans enthusiasm was infections and a welcome distraction from both the horrors of yesterday and the politics of today. Everyone at the table, even Zak and Nathan were able to joke and laugh with one another and just be for and evening.
When Jose ran out of things to explain to the other Sara pulled out come poker cards and the group enjoyed some polite gambling. The biggest pot was won by Stacy for 2 snickers bars 8 reese's cups and 18 tick tacks.
It was almost strange when Maik crawled into their sleeping bag. They didn't even know what day of the week it was any more. Not only that but today had felt like a blur. Like it hap passed in the blink of an eye. True the lilin had slept through half of it but damn did the rest of it just fly by. Such reflections didn't last all that long as Maik was still tired enough that it didn't take long to fall asleep.
Once more Maik stood in their mental space but this time it was a subdued feeling. There isn't much to go over today. I don't like it. A whole day gone and this is all we have to show for it. I get were your coming from but its good to have a relaxing day every now and then right ? We kind of needed it. Barely survive. Get stronger.
Maik started going through the notifications.
Tier 3 skill acquired - Chi data packet - Beginner + 6 alteration points.
Tier 4 skill advanced - Cultivation, Chi – Intermediate + 21 alteration points.
Tier 3 skill advanced - Chi data packet - Capable + 12 alteration points.
39 alteration points. The lowest increase in power sense magic became a thing. While Maik wanted to put it all into Chi, given both how much Chi they had needed though out the day and how much Chi many of those at the meeting had. However Maik's ability to apply and use many Chi skills at the same time was also quite advantageous. So 20 points went into Intelligence and the other 19 went into Chi.