The rest of the morning passed uneventfully for Joram and Mo Yu after heading to the library after the kerfuffle, though Mo Yu made a quick pit stop to get changed into casualwear.
He’d decided to head there and meet Bai Lian early so she wouldn’t head to the recreation area where they’d planned on meeting for lunch. There was no way of knowing if that prat would be waiting up there with reinforcements or something stupid like that.
Bai Lian had welcomed the company… for the full two minutes it had taken for her to forget about them after re-immersing herself in a book whose cover she tried to hide from them. He couldn’t help but smile at that shy pert of her.
For her part, Mo Yu had found a book on finances, of all things, to read. She must have been keen on the subject, because the only thing he could feel from her on the Network was an intense focus. Which led him to skimming through his own book: A Concise History of the Grand Waeryn Academy.
For a concise book, it boasted almost a thousand pages. Which wasn’t too bad, honestly, as the Academy was almost eighteen-thousand years old already.
When it came time for lunch, they chose to instead go to one of the banquet halls that served complimentary meals for the passengers.
It was a tasty enough meal, though he thought it was a bit too focussed on sea food. Well, he couldn’t blame them seeing as how that was likely the source of the bulk of their protein. He just didn’t like the taste of anything with a shell. Meh.
The rest of the day flew by from there and soon they met up with Wentian, who couldn’t stop smiling. Upon questioning, he shared that he’d found some terrific sparring partners with whom he then exchanged contact information.
Joram didn’t feel like sharing what had happened that morning with that “nobleman”, and neither did Mo Yu, so they left it out, content to just enjoy the lounge-like music playing in the background before retiring to his cabin.
“So, good day,” Joram said, rubbing his hands together, coming to a decision. “So, there’s something else I’d like to tell you all about.”
He looked at each of them in turn from where he sat at the edge of his bed. Bai Lian had retrieved a meditation pillow from her storage ring and was sitting on the floor next to him. Wentian had claimed the chair at the desk, while Mo Yu sat at the far end of the bed from him, hands folded on her lap.
“So, have any of you have noticed something… unusual in your Knowledge Sea?” He asked, regarding each of them in turn.
Bai Lian just shook her head and shrugged. Wentian frowned, but also shook his head. Mo Yu seemed to ponder the longest, but ultimately shook her head in denial.
“Well, that’s a bit surprising, but also fair,” he said, getting slightly concerned looks from Mo Yu and Wentian. Bai Lian just continued to smile as she looked up to him. “Well, as you already know, I’m a very powerful practitioner of Mental Strength, what the Academy calls a Mentalist.
“One of my abilities involves creating a sort of… network of minds,” he said, trying to find an explanation that would make the most sense for them. “It allows whoever is connected to it to enjoy several benefits. One is the ability to speak telepathically with anyone else in the Network.”
Mo Yu frowned slightly, a slight crease forming between her eyebrows.
“You mean like voice transmission?” She asked.
“Speaking directly to the mind?”
“Yes.”
“Then, yes, that,” he said, nodding as the Trio got varying expressions of understanding on their faces. “Well, a bit better because anyone in the Network can communicate with anyone else, over any distance,” he said, their eyes widening.
“So, that’s the first benefit. The most of the others revolve around me being able to know if you’re alive and healthy. The rest revolve around my ability to help you in one way or another,” he finished, leaving it vague on purpose. Telling them that he could affect them with any Power he wanted to at any time might freak them out more then a little bit.
As it was, the Trio looked dumbfounded, though Bai Lian seemed to recover first, feeling of complete faith in him rolling into him from her connection in the Network.
“So, what kind of help are we talking about here?” Wentian asked, his curiosity winning out over the caution Joram felt from him.
“Well, I’m able to do a lot of things that centre on fortifying you guys in battle in different ways. Providing improved tactical coordination. Shielding you from certain attacks. Hea-COUGH-ng you,” he finished, still a bit reluctant to let that one out of the back.
Mo Yu gave him a weird look.
“What was that?” Wentian asked, leaning forward.
“H-*cough-cough-cough*- you.”
Now all three were looking at him funny.
“Young master,” Bai Lian started, unsure of how to ask. “Do you have some sort of Restriction placed on you that prevents you from speaking about it?” She asked, concern for him evident on her face and through the Network.
Joram blushed under their intense scrutiny before he built up enough nerve to fully share with someone who wasn’t related to him.
“Well, you could say that one of the things I know how to do is… healing.”
“Like when you brought us back to life?” Wentian asked, his brow now also furrowed.
“That’s a bit different,” Joram said with a half-hearted shrug. “What I’m talking about is using Mental Strength, my Psionic Powers, to heal wounds almost instantly.”
“So, like how you brought us back to life?” Wentian asked, a bit confused, though Mo Yu’s eyes were slowly widening.
“No, not like that. You don’t need to be dead for those Powers to work on you,” he said, seeing the understanding finally taking hold, Mo Yu’s eyes now bright.
“Think of a healing pill. It will help your body mend over a period of time. What I can do is equivalent of taking all the healing a pill can do, but doing that in a matter of seconds.”
Of the three, Wentian looked the most skeptical, but was still willing to believe. Mo Yu’s eyes shone with excitement and something else he couldn’t identify, even through the Network.
Bai Lian, on the other hand, looked like she was face-to-face with her idol, putting the light in Mo Yu’s eyes to shame. What he felt from her was a mixture of so many emotions that he could only identify the strongest: conviction.
“So, if I were to get hurt, you could heal me from anywhere?” Wentian asked, looking impressed, but reserved.
In response, Joram retrieved one of the knives he’d made before being reborn and tossed it to Wentian, who caught it by the handle. It was the product of one of his earliest forays into enchanting, being the equivalent of a +1 dagger if he were to use gaming terms.
Wentian examined the blade, nodding appreciatively as he tested the edge by shaving the back of his thumbnail with it.
Wentian raised an eyebrow, then shrugged as Joram waved him, then took the blade and slid it across his forearm, effortlessly opening up his skin, showing the muscle underneath before blood welled up to fill the gap, then drip onto the deck.
It wasn’t just Mo Yu and Bai Lian who’s eyes nearly popped out, but Wentian’s as well.
“What the hell?!” He yelled in astonishment as he dropped the dagger, which imbedded itself into the deck point first, and clapped a hand over the wound in an effort to stem the flow.
Joram quickly sent an augmented [Mend Body] through the Network, causing Wentian’s flesh to knit together almost instantly while restoring a measure of his lost blood. The next thing Joram did was manifest [Cleanse] to rid the cabin of its new colour.
Wentian stopped panicking as he felt his skin knit back together under his hand, Bai Lian and Mo Yu still fussing over him until the [Cleanse] made the shed blood vanish.
“So, that,” Joram said dryly. “I thought you were a body cultivator. So, how did you cut yourself so badly?”
“I didn’t know that it was an artifact,” he replied in an accusatory tone.
Joram gave him a weird look. “How could you not know?”
Bai Lian bent down and retrieved the dagger and sheath that had also fallen to the floor before inspecting the blade. Mo Yu leaned in close trying to inspect it. Bai Lian looked at her, then shifted to the side and placed it on the desk where they could both have a good look at it, which got her a nod of thanks from Mo Yu.
Wentian, after double-checking his arm and flexing his hand a few times, joined them in their inspection of the dagger.
After a few minutes of inspecting it, quietly murmuring to each other as they did, they all turned to Joram with matching expressions; all of them serious.
“Is this a Relic?” Mo Yu asked, holding up the re-sheathed dagger in her left hand.
“A what-now?” He asked, not quite sure why they’d emphasized the last word like that. He’d studied this world’s methods for artifact refining, creating magic arms and armour and basically any enchanted item one could use. He’d found it rather sloppy, but was confident that he could easily make something of Tier 3 or lower if he had the recipe.
The Trio again exchanged looks at his response, this time it was Bai Lian who spoke.
“Joram, the aura that this dagger gives off is so… tight, that it is hard to notice it at first,” she said, trying to explain her reasoning, the other two nodding along.
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“So, just because its enchantments is… tidy? That make it a Relic?” He asked, just to make sure he was clear on what she was saying.
“Yes, that’s exactly it,” Bai Lian said, nodding as she got more and more excited. “The techniques used to create weapons like this, or anything else, really, have been lost since before the founding of the Grand Waeryn Academy.
“That was one of the major reasons for the Academy’s founding, and subsequent success. Scholars the world over despaired at the loss of knowledge that came because of the Great Cataclysm and the centuries of war and the struggle for survival after that,” she explained, her eyes practically glowing with the passion she felt on the subject.
Mo Yu had been starting at the dagger during Bai Lian’s impassioned explanation, then looked at Joram sharply when she finished.
“Did you make this?” She asked, her eyes firmly connecting to his for the first time that day.
“No…?” He said, trying hard to not shift on his bed while under their intense scrutiny. He got the distinct impression that not a single one of them believed him.
“Joram- young master,” Mo Yu said, pausing a moment as though wanting him to realize what she’d just called him. “Young master, you cannot use this technique at the Academy. Ever,” she said with pleading eyes.
He broke eye contact with her a few moments later to see what the other two thought. Bai Lian was nodding furiously, her ponytail flying around like the tail of an overexcited golden retriever. Or maybe “chocolate lab” would be a better simile due to her black hair…. Wentian also nodded, though just once, and very slowly as though to contrast Bai Lian’s reaction and thus put more weight into his response.
“So,” he started, looking them each in the eye. “How much would that dagger sell for at auction?”
- - - - -
A short time later found Joram alone in his room laying on his back, once again staring up at the deck head. He’d taken the time to explain to the Trio how to communicate through the Network before sending them off to bed after some practice.
The lights were now off in his room, though there was enough light for him to see anyways given his cultivation and level of body refinement. Which reminded him, he’d need to assimilate another ingot of adamantium again to keep progressing.
Then his thoughts turned back to the Trio and their professed concern for him.
He was reasonably sure that Bai Lian was at least genuine given everything he both knew about her and what he’d seen for himself.
Even Mo Yu seemed genuine… and scarily intelligent. Of the three, she was definitely the sharpest. Which left Wentian.
He wasn’t sure yet if the man’s demeanor and actions were just how he was, or if he was holding a grudge and planning something while acting in Joram’s best interests to stay alive.
Joram sighed. He really hated this. He was arguably less than great with social situations and dealing with people. He was arguably terrible at intrigue. Subtle manipulation, coercion, and deception weren’t in his practiced skillsets. Sure, he could lie with a blank face, but anyone that really knew him could see through it easily enough.
Now that he had to hide his true skills while at the Academy, he was looking forward to classes less and less. It grew exponentially harder for him to keep his mouth shut when he saw someone doing something inefficiently, day after day, week after week, month after month. He wasn’t sure if he could pull it off.
‘Hey, what’s wrong with you tonight?’ Avi sent, bringing him out of his thoughts.
‘Ah, the Trio brought up a valid concern,’ he sent, then proceeded to share what they’d told him.
‘Ah, your inability to cope with inefficiency,’ she sent back with a mental nod. ‘Well, look at it in one of two ways. One: you could slowly improve on the techniques they teach you, working your way through the curriculum, all the while being praised for your amazing genius,’ she sent with more than a little sarcasm.
‘Option two?’ He sent back flatly.
‘Or, you could just take what they teach you as a challenge. Learn a whole new way of doing things. Sure, it’s inefficient as all heck, but. If you’re able to learn all of what they have to teach you, maybe that’ll lead to a greater understanding of artifact refining in general. Who knows? Maybe there’s a pearl of wisdom in there that’ll push forward your own enchanting,’ Avi encouragingly sent along with the mental image of her smile.
‘Hmm,’ he mentally hmm’d. ‘I’ll give it a try. Heck, you won’t even hear me complain about how sloppy their anchoring of arrays is in their items!’
Avi just sent an image of her face-palming.
‘Thanks Avi, I appreciate the pep-talk,’ he sent with a smile of his own. ‘I’ll work on cultivating then. Have a good night!’
After receiving her wishes for his own night’s passing, he closed his eyes and brought his consciousness to his Star System.
Well, that’s probably what he’d wind up calling it, as that’s really what it looked like these days.
He shrugged off his thoughts on what he’d name things and instead focussed on his Cores. The breakthrough to the 5th Tier had changed them from balls of liquid T1 Mana surrounded by heavy mists of T2 Mana to a fusion of T1 Mana and T2 mana that once again resembled a mist.
Or, rather, he broke through to the 5th Tier because he’d finally managed to fuse the accumulated mana in each of his cores.
That had been a hellishly tedious process.
Now, as he absorbed Tier 1, Tier 2, as well as Tier 3 mana, he needed to process each of his cores separately. Taking the T1M (Tier 1 Mana) and the T2M and fusing them together while also condensing the T3 mana into a misty state as well.
It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if he’d only had one or two cores, but he still had sixty-three regular cores he needed to work with, as well as his Knowledge Star and his Psijic Star. As soon as M3 and M4 were done with the new [Genesis], he’d get one of them to help him keep up with the insane workload that was cultivation.
He didn’t bother pulling in any more mana, as he was a bit nervous of people noticing, so he just focussed on refining his cores one by one, adjusting their orbits as needed when their “mass” condensed.
He was so caught up in his work that he nearly threw a core out of orbit when Kinkade contacted him.
Kinkade: Hey, there’s someone knocking at your door.
Joram: Oh, thanks.
He opened his eyes and only then realized that dawn had come a few hours ago.
*Bang-bang-bang*
He got up, activated his [Cleanse] ring to take care of any night-time funk that might have accumulated, then went over and opened the door.
He blinked up at a stone-faced man in the same style uniform as he’d seen on employees/students of the Academy, though his suit was black, along with his tie.
What’s up with that? He thought idly as the man looked him up and down. He noticed that the man was solidly in the 4th Tier, and they way his skin didn’t quite move the same way as others’ would, he suspected that he was also a body cultivator.
“Are you Joram Aneath?” He asked, his voice was stony as his face.
“That’s me,” Joram replied casually even though he now suspected where this guy came from.
“You are under arrest for assaulting a lord of the realm and causing grievous bodily injury,” he said, motioning for Joram to raise his hands.
Joram gave the man a flat look that conveyed in no uncertain terms what he thought of the man’s intelligence. Which, incidentally, didn’t earn him any favours.
The enforcement officer stepped forward faster than Joram thought he would, showing just how skilled he was, grabbed his arms and pulled them behind his back. He finished off his movements by cuffing Joram’s wrists together behind his back.
The cuffs must have been an artifact, because as soon as they were secured in place, he felt a sort of wall form around his Knowledge Star, preventing any of his psionic power from leaving it. He must have done his homework then, as that couldn’t have been a coincidence.
He checked the Network, afraid of how badly his mother would freak out if it suddenly went down again without explanation, and heaved a sigh of relief when he found it unaffected.
He tested the Network out as the enforcement officer dragged him down the hall by one arm, sending Avi a message.
‘Hey, another clichéd situation has popped up. I’ll let you know if there’s anything that I need help with.’
‘OK.’
Well, that answered the question of whether or not he could still get responses.
Joram just kept walking, keeping his breathing even as the enforcement officer led him to the brig.
After being unceremoniously shoved through the door, he noticed that the Trio were also in attendance; also cuffed, though they at least had their hands in front of them. They must have been more polite than he’d been.
“So, what now?” He asked the enforcement office as he was pushed down into a chair on the other side of a desk, one that the officer soon sat at.
“How do you plead?” He asked, voice as stony as ever.
“Guilty of being punched in the face?” He asked, trying very hard not to sound sarcastic.
The man raised and eyebrow as he lifted a clipboard tacked with papers.
“Witnesses corroborate that you attacked the young lord when he was having a conversation with that young lady over there,” he said, nodding towards Mo Yu. “’In a fit of jealous rage, you then took the young lord’s hand and broke it in several places before fleeing the scene’,” he read from the second page down. Joram noticed that the first page was a “Report of Injuries Sustained”, listing no fewer than six broken bones in the hand and wrist.
“He punched me in the face really hard?” Joram said, adopting a look of confusion.
The enforcement officer just stared at him.
“Really, we were out in public, dozens of people watched the spectacle of that kid harassing my servant,” he said, exasperated. “How have none of them come forward with a statement?”
“Four lords of the realm have testified against you, there is no need for further witnesses,” he said, earning Joram’s eternal disdain.
“Oh, then if four horny teenagers say so, then it’s obviously true,” Joram said, sarcasm dripping from the words.
The enforcement officer’s face managed to get even stonier, somehow.
“I’ll tell you what,” Joram said before the man could speak. “Let’s do an empirical test, shall we?”
Even thought the man looked like he was about to chew rocks, he nodded for Joram to continue, earning him back a sliver of respect.
“He claims that I broke his hand, even though he called me a ‘Mundane’, meaning I haven’t managed to pass into Tier 1 yet,” he said, but the officer shook his head at that.
“His report claims that you’re at least Tier 3 and a body cultivator at that.”
“You’ve read my application and assessment, I presume?”
The man nodded, not seeming happy about it.
“Putting that aside,” Joram said, waving his cuffed hands behind his back. “Why don’t we get the young lord to come in and prove that he didn’t break his hand on my face when he attacked me?”
“The victim has no such obligation,” the stony man said.
“Ah, no need to prove anything, I see,” Joram said, shaking his head. “So, what, I just have to accept that a bunch of silk-pants can accuse me of whatever they want and that they’ll get their way?”
“If no other evidence is provided, then that is exactly what will happen,” the stoney man said with a shake of his head.
“That’s it? No appealing the decision? No challenging him in an honour duel or anything?” Joram asked, all but done with this nonsense.
“Hmm, yes, there is the option for an honour duel,” he said, and for the first time since he’d met the man, Joram was sure that the corner of the man’s mouth twitched in a way that might have been a smile that died before it could mature. “Once we reach land, an honour duel may be issued to your accuser. The accuser may then choose to fight you or designate a proxy in case he isn’t able to fight for himself.”
“Ah, convenient,” he muttered to himself.
“At the discretion of the challenged, they may designate it a fight to the death.”
“Marvelous.”
“I’m glad you see it that way,” the enforcement officer said, his voice still flat.
- - - - -
A few hours later found Joram and the Trio escorted off the cruise ship, watched by all the new students. He even spotted many of those that had watched as Mo Yu had been abused by that little shit, their faces turning away as they noticed his stare.
He was sure to keep note of them, as he didn’t think that anyone willing to see an innocent person charged and convicted for something he didn’t do, and do nothing about it, weren’t people he was willing to associate with in the future.
As he walked, he noticed a large stone platform off to the side, many students seated in the bleachers arranged around it.
He also spotted a few people who looked like they were in charge. For one, they were much older than most other people there, for another, their attire was closer to robes than a suit. They were also standing by the platform, on a separate raised stand meant for only a dozen or so people.
What caught his interest were the ones not dressed in the fancy robe-suits.
He saw Lisette and Warabec each speaking with a robed person, gesturing to where he was being escorted to the platform.
Joram supposed that that would be the location of the “honour” duel. It wasn’t a particularly large platform, and only thirty or so metres across. But what did catch his eye were the array pillars placed evenly around the stage.
Yeah, it was a stage. That fit better. After all, that would be where people directed their attention seeking entertainment.
The enforcement officer pulled Joram to a stop as they reached the stage. With nothing else to do, Joram looked around a bit more, seeing hundreds of students in almost identical garb, except for the ties. He guessed that the colour of the tie indicated the year of the student or something like that.
Across from him, on the other side of the stage, Joram spied the silk-pants mewling at an older man who looked like he could have been his father. To the side of him stood another man, also amazingly stone-faced. Joram turned to the enforcement officer and compared profiles for half a second before things properly fell into place for him.
Well, he’d suspected that the enforcement officer was crooked, bought off by the little lord’s family. Now, seeing the man’s veritable twin standing with the little shit, he was certain.
“So, let’s get on with this,” he said, raising his voice to carry.