The self-proclaimed king of boars drove off another competitor for the mana rich fungi it had discovered. The beast truly thought of itself as a king. He feared only a few other predators in the mana forest. There was the wandering river, which was a blue serpent several tree lengths long. The bear god which was by far the largest mammal in this section of the forest. Lastly there was the Eater of All, the beast at the very center. The boar king had no idea what it was. Nothing that went to that place ever returned. Besides those threats no other creatures would confront him. Except… well there was something new lurking about. It showed up a several summers ago and slaughtered many of the lesser boars. The king snorted as it ate. Unlike them he was big. He was strong. The boar kept thinking that, right until the fist penetrated its skull. Then darkness.
Azura wiped sweat from her brow. “That was a big one.” The boar she just killed was the size of several horses! Normally she wouldn’t use mana in her hunts but there was no way she was risking attacking such a beast without her full power.
“Shit…” How was she going to get this back?
Toren waited at the edge of the mana forest with his friends Gerald and Hamal. However they weren’t the only ones, five other rat-kin smugglers were there, weapons ready. In truth in the past two years they haven’t been needed. Azura had handled the mana beast on her own easily enough. He expected this time to be no different. What was different, was… everything else.
Gerald had come into his full stature. He was big, bigger than his father at close to seven feet tall and was densely muscled. His brown fur had a healthy shine to it. He, was a bit terrifying. The large two headed axe he held supported that statement.
Hamal was the opposite. He was lean and wiry. Between the two of them Toren was still faster but he was a close second. He was however far more dangerous. Even more dangerous than Gerald. While the bear-kin could beat any non-mage in a straight up fight, Hamal was training as an assassin. He had blades on his forearms and many more that were hidden about on his person. Toren had seen him skewer an apple from 30 yards away.
As for himself, Toren had grown a bit taller and put on some muscle, but he didn’t stand out. Not like his friends. Gerald overwhelming size made even mages hesitate to order him about. The dark calculating looks that Hamal gave you could leave an itch in your back as you waited for the knife. As for Azura…
Just then the half cat-kin emerged from the mana forest dragging an almost comical size boar behind her. It was like ant pulling along something 20 times its size. Azura was taller than him now, which still bugged him. She was lean but muscular which wasn’t surprising considering their training regimen for the past four years. Despite her build she had some good curves on her, although her chest still wasn’t very big. Okay in fact it was rather small. He was careful not to say that again as a phantom pain overtook him. Her face had lost the last of its baby fat and well… okay, Toren had to admit it. She looked good. Regardless of her physical changes the magical ones were even more pronounced. He wasn’t sure but he imagine she could beat most red class mages. Of course just because a mage was a red class didn’t mean much. Their spells and strengths were also very important but still he’d seen Azura do some amazing things.
“Whoa! Damn Azura that’s a big one,” Gerald called out happily.
“Yup!” Azura called proudly hands on hips. “Took it out in one hit. Stupid thing never even saw me.”
That didn’t surprise Toren in the least. He’d seen her drive her fist into a tree before. Toren suppressed a sigh. He stilled cared for her but his feelings were now confused. No matter what, she would be a little sister to him. But when he thought about trying to be something more the gap always deterred him. She wasn’t a mage. She made that clear. Instead she referred to herself as a cultivator, whatever that was. It was something new and, well frankly it was terrifying. The inferiority he felt got in the way of anything deeper they could have. Besides he wasn’t sure she would even be interested. All she been doing the last month was cultivating. Whatever that meant. She kept saying she was close to a breakthrough of some kind. Toren watched as the others struggled to move the gigantic boar only to have Azura grunt as she lifted it with both arms and set in the cart. Inferior indeed.
Azura felt good. The kill today would keep the kin fed for at least a month. But more importantly she had felt it again today. The way her mana was moving when she used it. Something was happening. She did a quick check inside her mana pool. Her mana was a thick gaseous wall that couldn’t really be called mana anymore. It was so thick you needed a knife to cut it. Recently she hadn’t even be able to cultivate. Well that wasn’t quite true. She couldn’t fold it anymore despite how hard she tried, but when she tried to press it something started to happen. Words failed her to describe the experience. It was like a fundamental law of reality suddenly decide to change, like if gravity decided that occasionally it would go in the opposite direction or do nothing at all. Each time she squeezed her mana she felt that the all-encompassing change grew ever closer. Yet before she could complete it he control faltered. It was so annoying!
As they traveled back toward the city Azura exchanged light heart pleasantries with her friends. The past four years had been tough, but the gains… Well she felt powerful. She wasn’t sure how she measured up to a mage. In fact what she did was so different there was no proper comparison.
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“A trader from Fortunia was setting up shop this morning. Want to check it out?” Hamal asked as he twirled a knife.
“Sure,” Toren said. No doubt he was looking for news about his brother. Sometimes such traders carried letters.
“I need to help my pa,” Gerald said.
“I’m cultivating the rest of the day,” Azura said. Toren looked vaguely disappointed but then a second late he gave a lopsided grin. Perhaps she imagined it.
The friends said their goodbyes after exiting the smuggling tunnel. Azura made her way home. The city had fallen on hard times. Well, at least the kin part of it had. The steep food prices never went back down and the citizens suffered for it. The slums had expanded like a rash on a prostitute, and now there were quite a few of those as well. Her home had been engulfed by the expansion. She could have moved to a nicer area with her mother. The funds she received from her hunting could pay for a home even in the mage district. But she was born here. These were her people. She didn’t want to leave.
“Hi mom, I’m home,” Azura said.
“Hi honey. Lunch will be ready soon.” Of all the things that had changed, this was the same. The smell of roasting meat Azura’s mouth watered and she bolted to the table trembling in excitement. Soon a plater containing a portion of mana beast steak large enough to fill up two bear-kin was placed before her.
Coralline pulled her hand back as if in fear as Azura tore into the steak her cheeks quickly bulging. Her mother sighed grabbing her hand bag.
“SO GUD!” Azura declared, her voiced muffled. Coralline ignored her. Her daughter was an adult… at least in theory. If she wanted to eat like a pig well there was little she could do about it.
“I’m heading out to do some shopping. I’ll be home later tonight,” Coralline said as Azura ate and left shortly after.
In five minutes she cleaned her plate which would have taken a reasonable person at least 20 minutes. She patted her distended stomach and stretched. That was amazing. A quick mana check showed that the high quality meal had restored her exhausted mana. It was time. She suppressed the shudder of excitement that wanted to burst out of her. She needed to be calm and focused.
Dropping into a meditative stance she began to move through the forms her mother had taught her. As she did her mind became intensely focused. Her thoughts dove inside to her mana. Obtaining a firm mental grip Azura squeezed. Unlike the effort from when she just started this was like trying to squeeze a rock instead some thin fog. Well she could in fact crush a rock, but that took her mana… Wait… Was that it? Was that the key? She been using her mana to enhance her body. Why not do the same to her mind… her control. Trembling in anticipation Azura took the smallest piece of mana she could and directed it to her brain, to her will. Her already tenacious willpower grew in expanded. Everything suddenly seemed easier. With a savage grin she squeezed down her mana. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she bent her will to the task. She determinedly crushed her mana down. Slowly. So slowly she didn’t notice it at first it began to yield. Then it rained. Azura was so surprised that she nearly lost her hold on the mana cloud. It was raining. Her mana was changing from a gaseous state to a liquid. How!? How was this possible?! She expected something, not this. Everyone knew mana existed in a gaseous state. It was like saying fire was hot. It was an immutable fact. That was, until now. More and more droplets fell. Soon the process cascaded. She couldn’t halt it even if she wanted too. All her mana, all four years of effort lead up to this one defining moment.
Yet all the surprise were not done yet. As the last drop fell she was left with a small puddle. Then her mana pool shriveled. Another impossibility. It collapsed like a dying sun into the center of her mana, no… this wasn’t mana any longer. Whatever this was it was the key to her future. As such it needed a new name. A quick thought and she smile. This was indeed the key to her future.
“I shall call you ki,” Azura declared. “And now to see what you can do.”
Curious she tried to compress and fold it. Nothing, not even a twinge. She spent twenty minutes yet no matter what she tried it would not yield. Perhaps that is far as she could go with that technique. She would have to find some other way to improve.
That failed she sent her ki into her body… or tried to. The ki wouldn’t move. She frowned. Focusing harder she tried to send a stream of ki to her arms. Nothing happened. Panicking a little, she spent ten minutes trying to move it. It wasn’t until she started spinning it out of desperation that the tiny puddle began to churn. It was slow and sluggish but with no other leads she put all her willpower behind it. Azura imagined a paddle as she mental spun the liquid. Gradually it began to speed up. First it moved like a gentle snow melt. Then a trickle of a brook. Soon it was a mighty river, unstoppable. Then a whirlpool. Once it could move no faster it began seeping into her body. Small tributaries of ki seeped into every appendage and through her entire body. Then they flowed back returning to the center starting the process anew. It was thin she didn’t have a lot of the ki but that didn’t matter. The power… She could feel it. It was far greater than anything her mana could achieve and… it was in constant motion. A quick test informed her that she wouldn’t be able to stop the ki. Her mental paddle broke. The flow unstoppable. Well she would have to find a way to improve from this point then.
She was about to pull her mind out when she saw something. In the center of the whirlpool there was several miniscule dots resting in the center void. They were simultaneously small yet endlessly large. The contradiction blew her mind. It got further blown when she realized this was the remains of her mana pool. That was when she noticed a trickle of ambient mana drift into her body. Bereft of any mana pool to gather in, the ultra-dense remains of her mana pool pulled in the mana like a gravity well. As it began to swirl around the micro singularity the mana collapsed into ki! Amazing. It produced only a minuscule amount but her collapsed pool was actually producing ki on its own! This would need a new name as well.
“You shall be called a core,” Azura said liking the sound. It was the core way for her to get stronger now.
“Yes!” Azura cheered pulling her mind out of her ki spiral. She had a big smile which turned to a frown as something felt off. Then it changed to absolute terror as the worst case of nausea she ever had overcame her. All thinking was obliterated as black vile surged up and promptly exited her mouth… and from all other orifices. Continuously… She never told anyone the details of that little event. Later, when she wasn’t as sick as a rapid dog infected with Ebola that had spent an hour racing in a circle, she would call this little event ‘the purge’.