This morning when I finally decided to get up and start my day in earnest, it was not like the last time that I finished making pathways to start my day. I was actually really happy this time.

The last few hours had been a bit of a slog, as I had mostly just been sitting still and controlling Ki to create Ki Pathways inside my five wolves soul’s. Though it was a bit of a mental exercise that I enjoyed, it was a bit repetitive and pretty time consuming to form pathways one after the other for hours. But it's well worth it.

The first pathway that I designed for Alpha, was a huge boost to his support abilities by making a pathway to remove a certain limitation to his healing flame. That limitation being the fact that Alpha had to actually touch what needs to be healed. When I first thought of what I wanted to give Alpha in terms of his Ki Pathway, I thought of an easy way to remove that limitation. I could make him shoot healing fireballs. It was a weird idea, but it was simple enough to design so I went with that. I just allowed Alpha to gather up a bunch of healing fire in his mouth, then with a small application of Ki he could fire it.

That Pathway had some limitations of its own, because the speed and size of the fireball would have to be a bit weak, and the more distance that the fireball travels the more it basically burns itself out and making healing less effective the further away the target is. It does give some more versatility to Alphas ability however, so it's worth it.

Then I moved onto Kera’s pathway, which gave me a hard time to design properly due to the difficulty of remembering some science and having to fix it so it obeyed the laws of physics instead of something less cost effective that bent said laws.

The thing about Ki and science, is that they actually complement each other rather than go against each other like you would think. For example, making fire from Ki needs a constant supply of Ki to convert to heat, but the energy consumption of Ki is way higher when there is no oxygen to fuel the fire because Ki has to basically make its own fuel to compensate. There are some ways to break scientific principles and theories, but like in my example it is just not energy efficient enough to usually make it worth it when you could make something to the same effect without breaking the laws of the world. At least that's what Omnikia said.

Lesson about how Ki works aside, I did manage to design a Ki pathway to achieve the effect I wanted Kera to have. Invisibility. Well, something close at least.

The Ki Pathway I designed for Kera to have was to make it easier for her to go unnoticed and act as a rogue type, therefore I made it so she would not be able to be seen easily. The technical details were a bit extensive, meaning that it took the longest time to form and it would take a long time to explain the science behind it, so I will summarize. The Pathway made light go through Kera’s body, instead of bouncing off like normal. Of course that did bend the ‘laws of nature’ as it's called here, but I found a work around to make it mostly work to aid those laws instead of break them.

The Ki Pathway needs a constant supply of Ki energy, which is then used to basically push the photons through Kera’s body and out the other side, but of course the Ki needed to push all the photons would be astronomical, so I added a bit of an effect to make it less Ki intensive. I made it so the amount of Ki supplied could be changed, meaning that Kera could be fully visible at times, be half translucent with a bit of a Ki supply, or be almost entirely translucent with a high Ki supply. The Ki needed to fuel the Pathway would also naturally go down when less light was hitting Kera, making the effect more useful in darker spaces.

In the tournament it would be less than the most effective in terms of Ki needed to use it, but I was also preparing to survive in the future as well as win the tournaments so I believe it is worth it. Plus it is an edge that she could use in battle to go unnoticed in almost any circumstances.

Moving on, the other three Ki Pathways were a lot more simple then the first two. In reality I only designed two Pathways, but because of Rocky and Steely’s similarities I gave them the same Pathway as the other. The effects were simple for Rocky and Steely’s pathway, it was a simple boost to the toughness of their body’s. Technically it increased the density of their body’s by adding Body Ki to reinforce their body’s. I got most of that Pathway and knowledge on how it works from Omnikia however, so I don't completely understand the very technical details. Just enough to make the Pathway so it works.

What Omnikia did not design or help me with in that pathway, was a little trick I thought of for Kera’s pathway. They could control the amount of Ki that the Pathway consumed at any time, making it so they could supercharge the pathway or equally turn it off to save the Ki for when it's needed. Omnikia seemed surprised by my change to the design to make that happen, but he accepted it with a nod and a smile, seeming to think that it was a good change, though I sensed he was a bit surprised by my addition.

Then the last Pathway, which was Flashes Pathway, was similar to the previous pathway in terms of what it does. It gives a speed boost and increases leg strength. The how was basically the same as for Rocky and Steely’s toughness Pathway, it used Ki to reinforce and increase the density, or muscle mass, in the legs. Again like with the toughness Pathway, Omnikia basically gave me most of this Pathway so I don't completely understand how it works. I did give it the same alteration as the toughness Pathway to let Flash control the amount of Ki used in it though, so I can say it is somewhat my design at least.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Once I finished forming those five Pathways however, I did not have the time to form the other five that I had designed for the rest of The Pack so I went ahead and checked over everything to see if I messed anything up. To my surprise, I did not mess anything up and they all work as far as I can tell without putting my wolves in a fight to push them and their Pathways.

So I unsummoned the last wolf I was checking over, Flash, from his position on my lap, and stood up on my treetop platform to get the day started.

“Finally done, are you?” I heard the amused voice of Omnikia sound out, causing me to look round and see him standing by his cottage and looking up to me from the ground. “Forming Pathways takes time, doesn't it?” I answered back with a smile as I turned myself around and started climbing down the branches of my tree to the ground, which I reached after a moment, jumping down the last few feet and hitting the ground. Turning around, I see Omnikia standing by the side of his hut, waving me over to follow him while he walked around to his front door, probably to get me to eat something before we get started with training.

It turns out I was right in my assumption, and soon enough I was eating the Sugar Oats as usual at the kitchen table with Omnikia questioning me about my wolves various Ki Pathways. When I told him that they had all seemingly worked however, I noticed a flash of something that took me a second to identify. It seemed like jealousy, almost. But I started doubting myself as his face seemed to change back to normal instantly. Surely I had seen wrong. It didn't make much sense either, so I let my thoughts vanish in a second as Omnikia started talking once more.

“With your next fight being this afternoon, I believe that you will need some time for your wolves to get used to fighting with their new Ki Pathways. Perhaps I could help you with getting some experience fighting as well.” Omnikia suggested, causing me to look at him over the table curiously but I gave a nod in acceptance. What he said was absolutely true, and because of the flexibility I gave to all my summons Pathways they would definitely need some time to learn to use their Pathways effectively.

It wasn't very long after Omnikia gave his offer that I finished eating and Omnikia brought me to the stone circle, both of us stopping on the outskirts instead of heading inside it unlike normal.

“Can you let out the summon’s you formed the first Pathways with this morning?” Omnikia asked, and I could see a light in his eyes as he asked that I couldn't quite identify.

I let out all my wolves one by one at his request, and they all circled around in front of me, Alpha looking like his usual self. Flash seemed happy and looked around to see what was going on. Rocky and Steely were standing side by side, Rocky looking everything over while Steely seemed to mimic him but his more happy and curious expressions almost the opposite of Rocky’s casualness, bordering on indifference, despite how hard Steely tried to mimic his older brother. Kera seemed to take in her surroundings with a hint of boredom, while she stayed behind the rest of her family, the closest to me other than Alpha who stood protectively in front of me.

After that Omnikia seemed to take a good look at them with barely glowing eyes, apparently using his Ki sensing Technique that he told me about to check over the Pathways that I formed. He told me that Techniques are very valuable and were basically considered to be what Masters used to form what he called schools to teach fighting styles and teaching the Technique to apprentices and students to form their own loyal group. But he also told me that he considered schools to be what less powerful people and stupid people use so he expected me to form my own unique style and Techniques.

I trusted him on that, but I think I am a long way off from Omnikias level in knowledge and learning to use said knowledge. The fact that I can't even learn Ki manipulation outside of moving individual particles to form Pathways, making me basically unable to use free form magic or strengthening my own body, nevermind actual formalized spells Omnikia mentioned. And that was the low level uses for Ki manipulation. Techniques were bordering or were at the pinnacle of Ki usage.

What he saw was apparently good enough by his standards so he nodded and then gave a smile to me. “It seems your talent with forming Ki Pathways extends even more strongly when it comes to your summons, Young Arnold.” He said with a smile, hinting at something akin to the look of pleasure you get when something fun is about to happen and causing my smile to fade a bit while I nodded.

“But for now, I believe that we should make use of this time we have to ensure your summons learn how to use them.” He tells me, then I step back as a mass of what I now know as Spirit Ki emerges from Omnikia’s chest to circle around behind him. It was massive as it emerged, taking almost a full five seconds to fully squeeze its energy out of Omnikia and onto the ground to settle into the full body of a humongous summon.

It was a dragon. Omnikia had a dragon for a summon the size of a small mansion.

I was honestly intimidated by its sheer mass, and then the dragon looked down at me with its teeth bared in a clear toothy grin as it took the sight of me and my wolves.

I took a step back in shock as I looked up at it, with Kera moving with me, Flash jumping away, Steely stumbling backwards in panic, Rocky taking a single step to take in the sight before him, and finally Alpha. Who stood up straight in the face of the reptile and stood his ground with a small growl as he looked at it.

“I believe that my wyvern summon will be able to give you and your summons some experience, will it not?” Omnikia said with a wide grin, obviously enjoying the reactions of me and my summons as I looked at him in shock.

Just what has that old man been hiding?!