Aaron stopped right in front of the ghostly outline of fog that made up the visible body of the great master. Like always his ghostly appearance was ethereal and strange, but it also radiated a comfort and peace that Aaron somehow associated with home. He felt at home here in front of the great master and that was a feeling he had not had in a very long time. But before Aaron could dive deeper into those feelings the Great Master started to talk.
“You have done well Aaron, I am glad I have given you the Heavenly Kata and Wind Steps, they are exceptionally suited for you. Now, I will get straight to the point.” The great masters hand stroked his chin beard as he talked and his whole outline of a body bobbed up and down beyond the thick blue light screen as if he was pacing.
“The situation for you is not good. That a group from Ambition has come down to hunt you is beyond my expectations, as is a manhunt of this size. As such I have decided to grant you one of my techniques early although it will probably be as much of a curse as it will be a blessing. Please go ahead and have two of the uninscribed cores out on your open palm as close to the barrier as possible. I will break the barrier and inscribe the memories in an instant. Just don’t be alarmed or move, that would make my task much harder.”
Aaron got two of the memory cores out, it was actually easy to distinguish them by touch, not just by color. He could sense a sort of signature of Qi from each of them and those without one were uninscribed as the great master had called it. He placed two of the cores on the palm of his hand and stretched it out as he stepped even closer. His hand was almost touching the light screen when he stopped and Aaron could feel the massive and intense energy in the barriers buzz and thrum in his ears.
The great master nodded and then his outline blurred and congealed, the fog roiled and boiled even more than usual and it contorted and formed into a small ball. Aaron could feel the energy build and the hairs in the back of his neck stood up. Now that he had more experience with Qi and all of these mystical energies in general, the casual display of the great master gave him goosebumps and made him want to run away, fast. But Aaron stood still, his hand stopped shaking too once he noticed it and then the great master attacked the barrier. The energy of the attack made Aaron gasp and he watched the barrier freeze and then break like glass. At that moment two wisps of smoke shot out of the cell and entered the memory cores on Aaron’s outstretched hand. It was the strangest sensation he had ever had. One core radiated music almost, a harmony of sound and echo, of smell and taste, while the other was fierce and strong, proud and invincible, but also hungry, oh so hungry. Both sensations clashed and harmonized at the same time making Aaron’s head hurt just from the sensation. And then from one moment to the other the Qi sank into the cores and the sense impressions vanished, just as fast as the light barrier repaired itself.
“Woah” Aaron could not help himself and was in awe of the display of power, but the great master just chuckled softly behind the barrier.
“Do not be impressed by power, the real impressive thing is my control.” He could feel the mirth in the old Transcendants words, but the old man continued.
“You should focus instead on the two memory cores I have inscribed. The left one for you is inscribed with the Fiend-god art, as well as a general guide on how to open meridians correctly, how to repair and change Qi pathways in your body as well as the Starbirth technique you used to rank up to the second Realm of Qi Refining. Using it will also harmonize your usage and cultivation process of the Fiend-god art, speeding up your cultivation considerably if you have enough resources. It will also make you hungrier as all it does is increase the Fiend-god arts efficacy. Simply put the information on there will make repairing and maintaining the Qi veins you created for the Wind Steps and Fiend-god art much, much easier.”
“So this will increase my efficiency while cultivating when I use it?”
“Correct, it is supposed to teach you how to most efficiently cultivate this technique, I also added some memories of Aranack and the creator of this technique to it at the end that you might find.” The old man smirked. “Enlightening.”
“And this core?”
“This core contains the new Technique I offer you. I would have taught it to you in the Foundation realm and it is a technique that usually requires that realm, but as it is my personal technique it is simple to modify it. I have to say the Demon inspired me to do this and you will find the end result quite fascinating I am sure. The technique is called Sensory Harmony and it is a sensory enhancement technique. But before you grow too excited know this: There are considerable downsides to this technique in Qi Refining, which is why I never considered giving it to you early.”
“Sensory Enhancement? Like what? I will be able to hear better, see better?”
“Exactly. This is a mental enhancement technique more akin to a meditation or mantra, but using that core will edge it into your brain and you will not be able to change it until you reach the Foundation Realm either. It is in a sense skill inheritance, very similar to the first time I awoke your cultivation. Originally Sensory Harmony works like this: You activate it and enhance all of your senses or just a few or you dull them at will. It is absolute control over your senses, especially over your hearing, which was always the most important to me personally, but all senses are important in experiencing harmony. As you are still in Qi Refining you won’t have any control over Sensory Harmony and it will just enhance all of your senses by a significant degree depending how well you adjust to it.”
Aaron frowned and could not see any downsides to that at all. Better senses sounded pretty good to him. He was not sure how it would feel to see better or hear better, nor how he would react to it. But it meant probably a huge upgrade to his combat power. His senses had always been pretty good so he wasn’t sure how much it would help in the end, but he did not dare to look down on an original technique of a Transcendant.
“So how much will it enhance my senses by?”
“It is difficult to give you a mathematical model of it, but in short I made sure your senses will be extraordinary. You will be able to hear someone whisper from a few hundred yards away, you will be able to see the wings of a fly from the same distance. Your nose will be as good or better as a dogs and you will be able to trace enemies by smell alone. Which is not always a pleasant thing. Overall it should allow you to sense, react, follow and engage enemies only when you want to. You will never be surprised again but the downsides are just as potent. Your increased sense of touch will make pain feel a hundred times worse, loud noises close to your ears will have a debilitating affect on you, same with bright flashes of light. Any kind of disgusting smell will linger in your nose and you will probably think you stink disgustingly for the first few days until you have acclimated to the technique and your own body odor. It has also a profound effect on the psyche. Things that were boring to you before will be fascinating and you will be easier distracted on one hand and on the other your focus once you are capable of shutting out all sensory impressions and find a point of tranquility, will be incredibly heightened. The peace you will feel in that moment will be even deeper than anything before. Shutting out your senses will leave you in a space of perfect calm so beautiful it made me weep when I created the technique. So in short, it is a blessing and a curse. The downsides and negative effects could be eliminated entirely if you were able to control the technique, but that is simply impossible before the Foundation Realm.”
Aaron chewed on the words of the great master and yeah he could see how some of it was a problem. It was a double edged sword. Better senses meant simply that he was more susceptible to sensory input as well. It made perfect sense, but especially pain being much worse would be very difficult to stomach. He had already felt pain in this short life of his in the Tower that he had never felt before in his old life. Increasing its potency felt more sadistic than he could express. But the tactical advantage of surprise had been the major advantage he had based his success in combat on since the start. Creating Ambushes and fleeing would be so much easier and the decision to learn this technique was easy in the end.
“Do not learn the technique right now.” the great master said and Aaron paused, the core halfway to his temple.
“Find a secluded spot and stock enough food for 3 days before you do so. The sensory overload you will experience at first will knock you out. It will be very uncomfortable and it will take at least a day or two to get used to it, so make sure you are prepared.”
“Oh, right, that makes sense. Thank you.”
The great master nodded and then sighed.
“Now, about the technique the Demon has offered you, I will allow you to learn it, if and only if you want to. I have to warn you that that man’s techniques are vile and corrupting. There will be a considerable price to pay in the future if you decide to learn the technique. But it is suitable for you nonetheless and it would pain me to lose someone as talent as you are to machinations of a mortal like this Mayor you told me about. Just be sure it is what you want to do. It will speed up your cultivation time considerably and that might be worth staining your mind and soul with a bit of karmic debt. In the end I do not know what the right choice is. To wait and risk slowly getting out leveled and overpowered by your enemies or to risk your sanity by learning anything from the Demon.” the old man paused after that short monologue and Aaron could feel the great Masters gaze like a heavy weight on his shoulders.
“The choice is yours.”
Aaron did not know what to think about the Demon’s technique. On one hand he felt like he needed every edge he could get to survive and that time was his greatest enemy. Taking his time and not becoming stronger as quickly as possible would be a mistake he felt. At the same time the whole corruption and price to pay warning made him weary of the technique. It felt like this decision too was double edged, but he was not sure what he wanted to do in the end. Still it would not hurt to have the option, right? Absorbing his enemies strength did appeal to him on some level, but at the same time he did not want to find out what price there was to pay.
“I will think about it, thank you for all your help great master.”
“You are welcome, young one. I believe you have a lot of things to work on in the next month and I am looking forward to your progress.”
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“I will do my best.”
“I know you will, now go on, please feel free to come back to ask any question you want. If it is beneficial for you, I will answer.”Aaron bowed his head and then slowly made his way over to the Demons cell. So far he could not see any price to pay, but he had no doubt the great master was right. He was by far the oldest, most powerful and probably wisest person he had ever known. He had always felt like the great master had a plan for him that was slowly unfolding. His abilities felt like they were made for each other and the great master had not told him to do anything besides getting stronger and cultivate. Things he would have done on his own, simply because he needed that power. He stopped in front of the Demons cell and the handsome man smiled at him. Not in triumph, but gentle, almost caring. Aaron did not trust it one bit.
“So, surprisingly the great Master has seen the wisdom in my offer. It is nothing short of a miracle.” The man spread his arms and laughed.
“You will not regret this decision, ignore the rambles of moral or scruples and embrace your true nature. You are a killer, a murderer, a vile, evil, treacherous bastard. Accept yourself and you will see how much easier life becomes, how much more pleasant and comfortable. Now I of course want something in return for my hard work and priced technique.” the demon said with a sly smirk.
Aaron was not surprised and he nodded.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing much, a good meal and an additional manastone a month. That should be in your power, right?”
“I am not a great cook.” Aaron said, but shrugged. “But if that is all then fine, you have a deal.”
“Good, great! There is a box right there.” he pointed to a few meters down the aisle.
“I hope you have a memory core left for me.”
“I do.” Aaron said and placed the last empty memory core into the item box, closed it and watched the demon take the core from the box. The man studied it and then nodded and placed it back into the box. Aaron blinked.
“Is it not sufficient?”
“No, I am just done inscribing it.” the Demon said and closed the box, opening it towards Aaron.
“Oh, huh, alright then.” Aaron picked up the core and his fingers felt like he had dipped them into ice cold water and for a moment, just a moment he could hear whispers in his ear, before the cores Qi signature grew more muted. He had known intellectually that the Demon was strong, but the Qi signature he had felt from the core was oppressive and chilling to the bone. He had also inscribed the core in almost an instant, a feat only the great master had replicated. The Demon grinned at Aaron.
“I hope you find this little technique of mine useful. Remember it does not just allow you to steal spirits from their hosts and absorb them. But while you hold on to a spirit you stole, it will also make you look like an ordinary vessel to any who use their spells or skills on you. But be warned some powerful mages or very high leveled vessels will be able to see through you.”
Aaron had almost forgot about that and it made him even more suspicious. It seemed too good to be true and the ask of the Demon felt insincere to say the least. But he did not have to learn the technique if he did not want to. But he knew he would. The lure of civilization and anonymity was too strong to resist.
“Thank you, I will keep that in mind.”
The Demon grinned his predator grin and then turned around and sat back down in his cell. Aaron nodded to him and then went back to Mortag to collect the last Item he needed and get an explanation about how to use the memory cores correctly.
The stout man was waiting for Aaron, standing next to his anvil as he polished something with a cloth.
“There ye are, the magic breaker is done.” He showed Aaron a shiny silver ring with intricate carvings on the outside that only vaguely reminded Aaron of the memory cores. It seemed this was just Mortag’s style and not unique to the memory cores.
“There are multiple ways to activate it, but the easiest is probably manually. You press this little symbol here. “he gestured to a little symbol, a pictogram actually that Aaron identified as not the tower language, but he could still read it. It was the symbol for Magic Disruptor or Breaker, Diminisher, it all fit. “Magic around you will fail upon activation, all magic in a 5 meter radius to be specific. The activation lasts for around a minute, but you can cut the time short and save its capacity. If you run out of charge entirely then it does have a cooldown period of around an hour until it recharges itself. You can shorten that time period though by pushing Qi into it. Which is also the second activation method, push Qi in there with the simple command of activating the Magic Breaker. Useful if you have both of your hands full.”
Mortag walked over to his security box and put the ring inside. Aaron joined him and received the small steel band that was so polished it looked like it was made out of pure silver. He took the ring, inspected it and then pressed the icon on it. In his magic sense he felt something like static, it felt weird, alien, but nothing else happened. Aaron looked confused to the nearby blue light screens and then deactivated the ring with another press.
“So this does not affect the prison at all? Is that not magic?”
“It isn’t, technically its a derivative of a Qi art, but don’t ya worry about that, neither you nor I can break it. Well I could with the right materials and a year of dedicated work, but the materials I would need aren’t native to the tower, so tough luck.”
“Huh, interesting.” Aaron said and put the Magic breaker on his finger. The ring sat snug on his ring finger, not too loose not too tight. Aaron did not question how Mortag knew his ring size, he had more important questions.
“So, one more question.”
“Go ahead, lad.”
“Do you have a better way to use the memory cores? Sending a complicated Intent pulse to it is doable, but having to keep contact with it is really arduous.”
“What? No, you just press on the Memory pictogram. Did I not explain this to you?”
Aaron shook his head with raised eyebrows and got one of the inscribed memory cores out.
“Turn it until you see a symbol. Yeah, right there. You see that?” Aaron did see a section of the complicated engraved marbles, but it looked like gibberish to him.
“Yeah, but if that is a symbol, I can’t read it.”
“What? Ah you probably have a cheap version of the Multiversal translator, that is in my home tongue. Press a symbol that looks like this.” The stout man raised his fingers and drew a symbol in the air. His fingers left glowing traces behind so it was easy to decipher.
“My memory cores have built in functions.” Mortag explained with pride, puffing out his chest. “One press on the symbol will give you the standard experience, full body trance. Two presses are training mode. You can see the memory around you, interact with it in a limited way, but you are not trapped in another mans memory, you can move freely. Three presses display the memory to all around you as a simple illusion. If you want to give more specific commands you do have to give it through intent.”
Aaron frowned, searched and found the symbol that Mortag had drawn in the air and pressed it three times. Around him appeared a small slice of the training ground with the kids and Aaron could see a young Sylus stand still and patient as he waited. Then he watched the kid absolve the Rejuvenating Fist kata.
“Amazing.” Aaron could not help himself, but say that.
“Oh you have barely scratched the surface laddie. When the core is activated this way you can influence it with your mind. For example tell it to skip ahead to a fight scene and then press the core twice for training mode.”
Aaron frowned, focused and honed his intent for the memory core to skip ahead, but as soon as he thought about it the illusion skipped ahead to the dizzying amount of fights that all started with the same punch. He mentally paused it and the illusion froze, much to his surprise.
“What? How the fuck does that work?”
“It would take weeks for me to properly explain that. But in short, your mind and your Qi are in no way separate and so it can read your wishes, but it will need input to change its modes. You also don’t have to hold it at all. Put it in a pocket or put it on the ground or whatever.”
“But, when I tried it last time nothing happened, it was a pain to control!”
“You did not activate it correctly. These are built in functions that I and my ancestors perfected over centuries. Now they only activate when you press that symbol, because otherwise those things would go haywire if they took any intent of yours as command.”
Aaron nodded and pressed the strange symbol twice for training mode and actually got feedback from the core for the first time. It was like it asked him a question which fight he wanted to train with. He selected one and an enemy appeared in front of him. He pocketed the core and got into the rejuvenating fist stance. The fight was quick and just to test out the waters, but it was like night and day compared to before. When he hit the illusion he got haptic feedback, just as if he had hit something for real. At least for a single moment when it happened. Same when he took a punch, he felt feedback, not pain and it was absolutely insane to him. He barely thought about stopping and the illusion around him paused.
“How does it know what I want almost as fast as I want it? This makes me a bit uncomfortable to be honest.”
“The core don’t know anything lad, I swear there are no artifact spirits involved. It’s your brain that does all the work. That is all I can say without actually teaching you artificery.”
“So what? The core uses my brain to give it its functionality?”
“More or less accurate, yeah.”
“Wild.” Aaron deactivated the core and shook his head in slight disbelief, but at least this was much better than having to do the whole intent thing. It felt like intricate technology and not like something the stout man had made within minutes. His respect for the Artificer increased by a lot and Mortag stood there proudly smirking.
“Ah, now you see me more for what I am, eh? Never look down on a man who dedicated his life to the pursuit of one craft, lad.”
“I’ll remember that, thank you.”
“You are welcome. Oh and before I forget it, you deactivate the cores the same way you activate them. Make sure you do because there is a minuscule Qi upkeep for it, while using a memory core.”
“Got it.” Aaron pressed the core twice again and then pocketed it. He felt ready to leave now. He was itching for some fresh food and he wanted to learn the two new techniques he had gotten and train with the memory cores. He needed the Unceasing Palm kata operational and usable before he did anything. Hopefully all these upgrades and new techniques would give him a more pronounced advantage over his foes. He said his goodbyes to Mortag and then wandered back to the great masters giant cage.
“I’ll be going now, thank you for the new techniques. I hope they will be very useful to me.”
“I am sure they are, just remember, learning Sensory Harmony will take a while to acclimate, plan for 2-3 days.”
“I remember, thank you.”
The ghostly outline of the great master nodded and Aaron bowed to Sylus and Mei both as he passed their cells.
“Good luck, Aaron.”
“Give them hell, make sure to use the kata in combat!”
Aaron waved and then left the prison the same way he had before, through an opening on the far side of the wall of the great master’s cage. The darkness was absolute just like the last time as he walked down the corridor and looked for the light. It took not as long as he remembered it and he spotted the light and the exit out of the tunnel system after no more than 10 minutes of walking in absolute darkness. While he walked in darkness his mind was awash with all the things he had learned, all the things he had gotten and he balled his fists in determination. Things would be different this time around. The tower had no idea what was coming for them. It was time to level up his skills and then, then he would be going back on the hunt.
And this time he vowed there would be no survivors.