Maik slowly drifted back to he waking world, the sensations of his physical body returning to him as the connection to the vast alien intelligence gently and gradually separated his connection with it. As soon as Maik crossed the threshold from being just another fragment of that vast, seemingly all knowing, entity and back to that of a mere 32 year old mortal man his body twitched. This was quickly followed by the slightly frightened voice of Maya.
"Ian ! Hes moving. Maik ! Maik, are you okay ?"
Maik regained control of his lungs and consciously took a deep breath while flexing his limbs to remind himself of the limited physical form he actually inhabited, with all of it weakness and imperfection, as opposed to the seemingly perfect existence he had almost been while in the tutorial. The groan that escaped him was filled with the disappointment for how lacking his actually body was but that was quickly followed by a flicker deep within Maik.
A hand shook Maik suddenly, large and strong. Probably Ian checking to see if I'm okay. But Maik wasn't ready to open his eyes just yet. He had felt the light from that flicker. It was so quick, so fleeting that if didn't focus the whole of his being on the point of its origin then it might very well fade away, almost like it had never been.
Something about the warmth of that fleeting light was... It was everything. A glimpse of the divine. It was the opposite of a lingering shadow. Remnant light and heat that hinted at the presence of something greater. Maik followed those after effects back to the source, the fleeting idea and the desire that produced it.
I. Can. Become...... I think, there for I am. I am, therefore I can desire. I can desire, therefor I can change. I can change, therefor I can evolve. I can evolve, therefor I can become MORE.
With every logical step the idea flickered again, and again, and again. Until it finally caught, a gentle candle flame within the bleak, gray room that was Maik's life. The idea that he could become and even surpass the state he had experienced within the tutorial breathing new life into his existence as he finally opened his eyes.
Ian and Maya were looking at him with worry but seemed a little taken aback when they met Maik's eyes. They quickly recovered though and Ian started peppering Maik with questions while Maya called Maik's father. As Maik started explaining what he had just been through his fathers voice came out of the speaker.
"Yeah the others have woken up too and are also talking about this tutorial. You all should load up and come here so that we can go over this in more detail. Maik. Are you fit to drive ?"
Maik checked his motor functions and balance by standing on one foot for several seconds.
"Yeah. I'm good."
"Then I'll see you all when you get here."
The bruises from where the air bag shielding hit Ian in the face during his wreck was really showing at this point so again Maik did most of the work of loading up the van with his stuff. While loading up his neighbor walked over for one of his usual chats. The guy was a retired machinist so he and Maik had a lot in common and had talked with each other at length a couple times a week ever sense Maik had moved into neighborhood almost 4 years ago.
"So what do you think about this Moon crashing into the earth nonsense ?"
"Honestly ? I think that if we can all suddenly have stat sheets and an interface, then there really isn't anything that's for certain. I know you have the garden but... Well I hope you have some food stuffs stored up, but that you don't need them. Anyway. I need to get my cousin to the family manor. Hes kinda banged up from the wreck he was in earlier, but it was good talking with you Karl."
"Always a pleasure Maik. And no worries. Me and the misses have everything we need. I seriously doubt that. Uh... Whatever this is, is going to be the end of the world or anything, strange as it is. I've seen things get pretty bad in my day and my gut tells me this wont be all That bad...."
He adopts a far off expression as he stares into the distance.
"Things are going to change though. Hahh. Not such a big deal for an old retired machinist like me, sense I'm out of the game but for you... I hope you young folk are ready for it."
Maik shook the mans hand, still amazed at how the older generations still referred to him as a young man despite being in his 30s. They parted ways. Maik had wanted to just sit down on contemplate the insights from the tutorial for at least an hour but the underlining urgency he felt more important to him so he set out for the family manor as soon as possible. Thus, as soon as everything was loaded up they were back on the road.
An hour and a half later and they finally reached the family manor. It was a magnificent 3 story dwelling 7 bedroom 4 bathroom. There was also a barn with an apartment on top in the back of the property, up on the hill, where Maik's older cousin, his mate and their son lived.
That cousin, Maik's brothers and younger cousin helped him unload his van and Maya's car of all the supplies and personal effects which had been brought with them. Only after that was done did Maik finally get to sit down with the others in the living room where he was told about everything that his family had found out about the tutorial and this new system that governed the interface.
There had been 3 others in the family who had accepted the tutorial. Maik's youngest brother Maverick, his oldest brother Mitch and his younger cousin Derek. It was Mitch who spoke for the 3 first.
"Okay. So, uh, its bad." He takes a deep breath. "The first thing you need to understand is the Chi stat. Its supposed to be a measure of how much Chi we can use. However. This system is taxing us, all of us, by taking chi from us as we generate it. Okay.... Its taking 90%. We don't ever have more then 10% of our total chi. On top of that. If we try to exert chi, in any way. It takes 90% of that chi, as a tax."
Maik's jaw dropped at the sheer amount being taxed.
"What the fuck ? 90% ? Are you sure ?"
Mitch just nods rapidly, more like he was shaking his head up and down rather than a nod. "Yeah. Ohh yeah. And get this. Those donation, you know, to finish the quest ? That needs to be contributed above and beyond what 90% were already being taxed. Yeah."
Maik's older cousin Neal butt in. "Think of it like the 12 volt battery in your van. 12 volts is enough to turn over the engine, power the head lights or blast music through the speakers. 1.2 volts though. Man you can't even power a single L.E.D. bulb with that."
Derek stepped up to report on the attributes next.
"So we've looked into what the stats are, and what they do, and how they seem to be measured. basice stuff."
"Strength determined the amount of physical exertion your body can output. After comparison were pretty sure that its also how many kilograms you can list over your head.
"Flexibility is, well, how flexible you are but for some reason it also mentions the ability to morph ones body."
"Dexterity was a little different form what I expected. It describes how much fine muscle control you have but doesn't seem to do much for speed, at least not by itself."
"Endurance has two aspects. It apparently outlined how much physical energy you can have in reserve and how fast you will recover both stamina and Chi."
"Durability is a strange one. It seemed to be a measure of how hard it is to do lasting damage to you."
"Intelligence seemed to be a measure of our raw processing power, information retention and recall. Its like the hardware of a computer."
"Smarts on the other hand is like the software. Its our ability to combine already known facts so we can deduce a third previously unknown fact.
"Wisdom would better be thought of as survival instinct. At least that's what I think. It governed gut feeling, Patience, delayed gratification and resistance from mind altering effects or addiction."
"Perception was again pretty self explanatory. It measure how much sensory information you can take in at one time."
"Charisma ! That one made an odd sense. Rather than looks of beauty its all bout communication and how well you can be persuasive."
"Chi seems to be the measure of how much Chi we can handle, How much we can move at one time and how much we can store within ourselves. But as Mitch mentioned, we only functionally have access to 10% of what the stats says we should have."
"Finally Aura. Its not really your soul. Its something called spirit, which is, um, kinda attached to your soul. Its what connects your soul to the body, essentially."
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Maverick finished up the presentation, though with far less enthusiasm.
"So uh. Yeah. Didn't really get much on the 5th Imperial Congregate, or the Vassaroth, or even the Master control matrix... But what we did kinda find out... Well it hints that there are multiple sub matrix's that work under the master control matrix and its back up matrix. We think they are, um, running this whole... Thing, with the interfaces and the guests. We also think that they are using A.I.s from earth. At least to translate and better understand us."
"Um, don't know where they came from or how long they have been here but apparently it all started with whatever happened to the moon. We don't know if they caused the supposed moon issues or if the the issue with the move prompted this the matrix's into actions. They would have to have been working for a very long time if we really would have 10 times as much chi without them and their tax.
A silence lingered over the group for a moment while everyone digested what they had collectively discovered. Finally Maik decided to voice his own reasoning for taking the tutorial right off.
"Well, we certainly don't want the moon crashing into earth. The other shit can wait until after the immanent threat to global Annihilation has passed."
Maik's father, the head of the family took a deep breath before speaking with his land lord tone.
"Supposedly. There isn't any evidence to suggest that there is anything wrong with the moon, and I would think that anything that could actually move a planet out of his usual orbit is something that would have been noticed. I'm not saying that its not something the government would willingly tell everybody about but lets not leap to conclusions."
Then he shifted too his boss voice.
Fortunately this happened on a Friday so tomorrow was already going to be a slow day. Still we will need to check on how things look around town tomorrow before any of the techs head out. We also need to asses how everyone is doing. Mitch and Ian had pretty bad wrecks and both of them look a little rough. Derek's van wasn't as bad but his van is till down. That leaves just Maik, Neal and Maverick with working vans right now."
Finally his tone become the warm and welcoming tone he used when stepping into the fatherly role as he stood up.
"For the time being, there is room enough for everyone to stay here at the manor. Now then, dinner has been prepared and I'm sure everyone is hungry after an eventful day."
It was spagetie with meat sauce. During the meal there was sparatic discussion about chi, what it was, how to use it and so on. Maik and Mitch were both self taught practitioners and their older cousin, his mate and Mitch's mate all had backgrounds in or were part of a local dojos that delved into aspects of chi use. This lead to an involved debate between them during and after the meal where they shared tidbits, theories and experiences.
Maik was in the middle of explaining the self made cultivation technique, something which had been heavily influenced by Chinese, Japanese and American cultivation novels.
"So usually I draw the energy in though my crown and root chacras and condense it down into denser energy that I then draw into my chi circulation. I start by directing the energy down into my lungs along with the breath. Then back into the esophagus and down into my stomach. Past the stomach I guide the flow to spit and swirl through both the spleen and the pancreas. After that I push the energy down through the small intestine, followed by the large intestine before forming a vortex at the root chacra."
"Then its up the spine, splitting off half way up to enter the kidneys. After the kidneys are saturated the energy is directed to the liver and then the heart. after flowing through the heart I pull the energy up into the Thymus and only after do pull the energy back into my spine and then send it up onto the brain, eyes, ears and the rest of my head."
Maik father nods.
"Its good to hear that at least when it comes to your circulation your actually using science. It was obvious you watch to much anime from your earlier explanation on trying to move things were your chi."
"You once told us that you had gone to the wise men on the mountain but they wouldn't teach you, but you never told us where you actually learned to become a practitioner ? it wasn't like the internet was a thing while you were growing up."
Maik's father took his time chewing his food before answering.
"Yeah. They basically said I was too emotional, that my primal nature was too strong to be taught. But just because the monks rejected me doesn't mean there weren't others for me to lean from."
And that was all he said on the matter. Secretive about his past as always. The others continued going over things like stances and Mudras that aided with chi flow and control. Maverick and Derek had many questions, as they were the 2 who had taken the tutorial but hadn't ever really practiced chi manipulation of any kink like Qigong before. The tutorial had opened their eyes to a whole new world and there were eager to learn from those who had a background in the subject.
Meanwhile the other members of the family, those who neither had any background nor had went through the tutorial had simply listened in, doing their best to follow the conversation to gain any understanding on the subject material.
The conversation continued well past the evening meal unit Michael, the house head and Maik's father declared, in his fatherly tone, that it was getting late and they had needed to wrap things up.
"Mitch and Ian definitely need to rest and the rest of us with have more then enough to be getting on with tomorrow. Lets get some sleep and we can continue this tomorrow."
It was going on 11 and both Ian and Mitch were looking a little worse for wear so everyone assented without complaint.
Despite the size of the house Maik and Derek were going to be sleeping on the couches in the living room while his older cousin Neal, his mate Becky and their son tucker going back up to their residence in the apartment above barn on the hill.
Before Maik went to bed though, he wanted to perform a little experiment. Stacking up some pillows in one of the dining room chairs had raised the seat high enough to allow for an extended meditation and cultivation session. Maik was partial to using the Apana Mudra with each hand while cultivating. First Maik needed to bring up his stat screen. From there he wanted to understand how much Chi he had and it took some effort to add that function to the stat sheet, and even then, it taxed Maik with a pressure on his mind that threatened to become a head ache.
Name : Maik Alphonse Daley
Species : Tier 1 / Human / H grade
Race : Celtic / Germanic
Cultivation level : 1
Age : 32
Gender : Male
Height : 190 centimeters
Weight : 78 Kilograms
Strength : 91
Flexibility : 99
Dexterity : 110
Endurance : 68 / 680
Durability : 82
Intelligence : 134
Smarts : 157
Wisdom : 113
Perception : 43
Charisma : 106
Chi : 148 = [1480 / 148]
aura : 135
Tier 1 skills
...................
Tier 2 skills
Fundamental Chi control - Intermediate
...................
Tier 3 skills
Engineering - Advanced
Electromagnetic theory - Experienced
physics - Effective
Chemistry - Intermediate
Chi manipulation - Capable
Tier 4 skills
Chi cultivation - Beginner
Success ! Now I have a rudamentary chi bar. Very rudamentery. Still, now I can keep track of how much I have to work with.
Next Maik wanted to open up the window meant as the connection for contributing chi to the moon crash quest or for paying the monthly subscription fee. He wanted to have that window and the stat sheet open at the same time but the increased pressure on his head convinced Maik that this was a bad idea right now. Instead Maik started his usual cultivation process, the same one he shared earlier. Only once he had finished a full circuit did he start pushing Chi into the window.
Maik couldn't play any music due to that fact that everyone was trying to sleep. Music usually helped him get lost in the act of drawing in energy and cycling it through his system. Instead he started counting revolutions. Inspiration from the tutorial kept tugging at Maik's focus, urging him to try new things. More than anything it urged him to increase his focus and improve his base line control of the energy flowing though him.
As such Maik could feel a noticeable improvement over the course of the session, like when you correct problems in your posture while doing squats. The improvement felt like it allowed Maik to move more chi then before but also wore out his chi muscles a little faster too. At least it felt that way. There quickly reached a point where Maik felt like his reserves were getting dangerously low, as he was easily able to send more energy out of himself and into the window than he could gather and store.
To compensate Maik reduced the flow of outgoing chi to a manageable level, roughly equal to how much energy he was gathering. This continued until Maik could tell that trying to cultivate any more just wasn't going to produce much, if any, results. At that point he stopped the process and finally opened his eyes to see the fruits of his labor.
104 of 1,400 towards Tier 1 rewards.
Checking the time Maik found that he had started his meditation about 42 minutes ago.
Jesus.104 ? That's it ? This.... This is going to be more difficult then I thought. Is the system taxing the energy I'm sending it ? It must be, just like Mitch said. Ohhhhhh ! I don't now what the base line is. Or my recovery rate or... Wait. 0ne. Two. Three."
Maik listened to the clock on the wall, counting out the seconds while watching the Chi bar slowly, ever so slowly, recover energy. At 62 seconds Maik had recovered 7 Chi in the replenishing bar.
So my base line recovery speed is just under 7 chi per minute... Hmmm. And my Endurance stat is 68. I''m going to just say that Chi recovery rate is equal to Endurance divided by 10 per minute. So 6.8 per minute. Good enough for tonight. I need some sleep.