Chapter 48: Eric. Of Stone and Shadow.
I dissolved the impure aspected Qi that lined the inner pathways of my two meridians with relative ease. What I really needed to figure out was how to create or build techniques. While cycling my Qi faster and faster pushed me well beyond the bounds of normal human capacities, I didn’t think that was going to cut it for the long fighting that would take place within a dungeon. The second manual I brought into the breakthrough chamber was called the Fifth Embrace of Shadow. It was the beginning technique manual for all the members who were a part of Bjorn’s house of Stone-Shadow within the Qatar of subjugation.
In my old life on Earth, which was beginning to become a distant memory, I had worked on a few classified projects. Understanding the importance of a good cover story was not hard for me to comprehend. I would need to at least learn the basics of Bjorn’s house combat style, as it would appear odd to anyone if I was not familiar with the style. I did not know if I would fully follow the path of stone shadow, but it was as good a place as any to start. Once I scrubbed the black gunk off from my body from opening the last two of my meridians, I began to read the second manual. And, like with all good cultivation manuals, it had more than a few pictures.
Stone-Shadow manual.
Title: The Fifth Embrace of Shadow.
It is upon this great assent of the path of three hundred mountains that the edge of the shadow can be found. For it is from these three hundred heavenly peeks that the great shadows are cast. Creating that place where the depths of the underworld brush the surface of these immortal lands of Lum'rathren. When these, our initiates, on the path of subjugation, delve into the depths of these lands dungeons, that is where the forever dark of the under realm meets the torch of our light casting the razor's edge, we learn to dance upon. It is in this dance that we come to embrace the shadow.
Technique one: Shadow Dart.
From the variant Shadow glass of the dungeon, by way of napping and striking with stone, create a pointed blade that which can be thrown with ease. After taking the object within the core space, it must be fastened to the foundation upon which the cultivator stands. A table or pillar will work all the same, for in time, those shadow materials can be collected to fashion into a table or pillar that will add to the depth of the shadow to this strike. Once this is done, the summoning of a shadow dart should be as common to the cultivator as any process after this point.
Technique two: Shadow Binding.
Any dungeon variant material that can be woven into a rope, cloth, or other such flexible material can be used. The incorporation of these materials into the foundation must be done as one would have the shadow do. By so doing, the shadow is thus given a pathway to move. If the shadow is to coil around a limb or object, then the material must be coiled around a connection to the core foundation, the strength of one’s foundation, and variant materials added contributing to the core strength of the technique.
Technique three: Umbra Scales.
From the variant materials that can be fashioned into plants, scales, and armor, byways suitable before incorporation within the core space, the initiate can fashion a replica of themselves from the core foundation, solidifying that image of themselves and adorning it with the crafted shadow armors. This connection will allow for the emulation of adornments by collected shadow aspects and strengthened with one’s own collected Qi, thereby creating the adornments on the body from the shadow, thereby offering protection.
Technique four: Shadow blade.
From the variant material suitable for blade crafting and aspected to shadow, the initiate will fashion a blade. The shadow's edge cuts, but the blade must be set to the core foundation in such a way that it is easily grabbed and moved. A stand is suggested. This fashioning must be done with the intent to hold the weapon, for it to cut, strike, stab, block, and be solid. The investment of aspected shadow Qi is no small amount of its power, and this technique is quite weak for the beginning cultivator, but its principles are well practiced for the higher realms of cultivation.
Technique five: Shadow Step.
No variant is needed for this technique, for the cultivator needs only contain and manipulate through Qi the shadow aspected Qi they house within their core space. Once enough shadow has been collected, the transitions can be created from holding the Qi construct created within the core space. These constructs should be of doorways and paths to travel, as in the core space with a door and the exit placed a distance away, the cultivator can travel with ease within their core space. However, in the lands we travel, this technique requires much practice and power to fully master. We glide along the shadow's edge.
“Well, shit. Those were kind of cool.” I said, placing the manual down. It also explained the trunk that was placed next to the bookshelves; I bet these needed materials were in there. The only thing Bjorn wasn’t allowed to give me was contribution points.
I went to the trunk that was next to the bookcase. I extended the smallest thread of my Qi I could to it. The qi inside of me responded as naturally as when I increased my cycling, the thread extending involuntarily from my finger when I had slightly indicated the trunk when thinking about it. The connection was almost as completely intuitive as it was with my core space. One second, it was a trunk; the next, it was like I was peeling back a hidden portion of space to reveal the contents within. I started pulling items out and placing them in the breakthrough chamber.
Wrapped in a fine black silk cloth that was also a core material were three expertly crafted Kunai’s. Internally, I knew after I had a moment to examine the knives that I would only be able to use a weak version of one, but I could bring all three and the cloth into my core space. Just because an object was there did not mean it had to be used and could be removed from the core space with a bit of effort. I grabbed everything from the chest; there was no point in leaving all that stuff in a box when I could use it. Most of the things that stayed in the chest had to do with alchemy. When I examined these objects, I just knew that they, on a fundamental level, could not be brought inside the core space. Using Qi to examine the world around me gave me the same feeling back like almost all of the things in this world would not be able to be integrated into the core space.
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The process was easy; just a bit of focus with an applied Qi thread, and the item would phase into the core space. The core space was not really smaller; it was just perceived that way by our dimensional perception. I was both my actual height and the smaller version simultaneously; the same was true for the items brought into this core space. The weapons and armor, ropes, chains, whip, table, and display racks all got brought into my core space. Each was made from a variant material that was shadow-aspected that could be found in the dungeon. The swords were more than likely made from the very same variant iron ore we would have to bring back from our first mission. The items were both insanely expensive from the perspective of an exterior sect member, but for someone raised in the inner sect, it would barely be a pittance.
All of the items had been selected to be compatible with the path of Stone Shadow and optimally made for the beginning stages of this cultivation combat path. The blades were made with a near-matte black finish, the metal holding the aspect within itself of shadow. The ropes were finally braided leather and woven material that would allow my Qi to directly tap into and control the formed shadow Qi.
As I set the table and stands up near my pump house, my Qi was able to pull from them an understanding of how they worked. The table was a wood that only grew in areas with, you guessed it, heavy shadow Qi. With the formation enchantments carved throughout the table, it allowed for a large amount of pure shadow-aspected Qi to be stored. Aspected Qi differed from pure Qi in that it was solely an energy that interacted with shadows. I could never make a fireball out of shadow-aspected Qi. My pure Qi could connect to the shadow-aspected Qi and manipulate shadows, giving it solid form and function. Increasing the amount of aspected shadow Qi used made the technique stronger and more real. The darts were then powered and controlled by pure Qi; too much of it and the aspected Qi would become too diffuse to connect to the shadow, making for a weak attack.
I could sense how each of the stands and the table pooled their connection to the Shadow aspected Qi. When I stored shadow Qi, it would be spread out evenly between all of the shadow Qi materials. Forming the blads was as easy as lifting the weapon from its rack; the shadow dart would flow from my hand with a thought to strike out at its target.
The binding techniques were different, though. I spent time winding the ropes around black stone pillars and wooden frames. I tied a few knots I knew off the top of my head, lock slip knot, bowline, clove hitch, and the like. If I used shadow to try and bind an enemy, it had to be in a way that was already represented in the core space. The shadow would only emulate what was there. The chains got locked around cylinders of shadow stone that were quite large in comparison, but when I fed Qi through the system, I understood. The shadow could always go down in size and constrict around a limb, but if the representation in the core space was too small, the shadow would be unable to form around the object. As I built the first of these techniques, I started to understand the importance of aspected Qi and variant dungeon materials. The materials were quite literally the foundation of a cultivator.
Making the mannequins from the foundation stone of the core space only took a thought. Then, it was a weird game of dressing up a life-size doll version of myself. Once the armor was in place, though, I could feel how it would appear on my body when the aspected Qi and pure Qi were channeled into it. I would only be able to create portions of the armor right now, but once I had enough shadow Qi, I would be able to summon and unsummon the shadow armor instantly. I was only able to keep two formed mannequins at this point in my cultivation, so one was for armor, and the other had the rest of the weapons strapped to it. Two knives at its waist, a spear in one hand, and a bow and quiver on the back completed the last mannequin of myself.
The last and by far most difficult technique would be shadow step, the movement technique. I would actually need to bring into my core space shadow Qi and guide it to its appropriate place. In order to do this, I would need to shift my outer projection of how I was cultivating Qi. Right now, my pumps just pulled from a large body of imaged Qi water with all the aspects mixed throughout. I now shifted my perception of the Qi as water to include a thick black oil spill running along the top of the water like snaking rivers. I moved one of the three inlet pipes from my core pool and placed it back into the projected ocean of Qi. Using a small portion of pure Qi, I added a float to the inlet hose. This let the suction end float on the top of the Qi, allowing it to only pull the oily shadow Qi from the top of the Qi water. If I drained an area of all the shadow Qi, the oil would disappear, and the pump would begin pulling in the normal wild Qi.
I removed the hose that connected the pump to the filters and attached the end to the variant shadow Qi table that held the throwing knives. It looked like a table with a weird garden hose coming out of one leg. It would work, though, and as I turned on the shadow Qi pump, I felt the table drink in and store the shadow Qi. Simultaneously, as the shadow Qi began to fill spots in my core space, I felt how I could use that Qi to strengthen and focus through the items and various techniques I now had.
When I had enough shadow Qi, I created two doorways that filled in with a thin membrane of shadow Qi. From the two portals, I could nearly instantly travel between the two while in my core space. It would be a convenient way to move around the place once it got bigger. The real test was how that would translate into phasing into the shadow realm in the real world.
After reattaching the two remaining inlet hoses to the outside and leaving the pumps running, I exited the core space. The process of integrating the items was easier than I thought, though it did require a large amount of time as everything had to be manipulated by hand while in the core space. Once the techniques were in place, though the understanding of how to use them was effortless, applying that to the world outside was going to take more than a bit of practice. I also had to sort out my own techniques as I was not going to be wholly following the stone shadow cultivation method.
I stood and was surprised to find myself mostly clean. Expelling impurities from the body was always so messy. Dressed in the training gee and headed back into my apartment. My first instinct was to just create a shadow dart and throw it at the wall, but after the scolding, I got for doing that once, I thought it might be a better idea to find a training room. The apartment did have them. That was one of the odd things about living in a space that was larger on the inside than the out; you could never quite grasp the dimensions of the place unless you focused on it.
I reached the training room door, having not seen anyone. It was late in the night, though that meant very little to a cultivator, with just a slight focus of Qi cycled through the body with the intent to refresh oneself from fatigue, and it was better than a cup of coffee. The green glass in front of the training room lit up when I approached and showed that I had the maximum amount of time paid for. It was over 2,100 hours, so it was something like three months. The room used the coins that stored Qi to operate. I could select the environment and basic combat training programs. I chose a mostly empty room with targets on the wall.
It was testing time. Standing in front of the target, I raised my hand in the direction of the target. I let the shadow Qi swirl through me so fast I barely thought I felt it. A single hazy black, vaguely dagger-shaped bolt sprang from my hand and impacted the target dead center. Aiming was going to be relatively simple with this technique. I only had one shot in me before I felt my Shadow Qi reserves drop dangerously low. I entered my core space quickly, attaching floats to the ends of three of the pump inlets, and set the fourth to just pump in wild Qi. I turned all the pumps to level two and felt the massive draw I was now exserting on the Qi in the room. The impurities coiled upward and were absorbed by the room, and wild Qi and Shadow-aspected Qi flooded in. The room would apparently adapt to what I was doing.
It took only a few moments for me to gather enough shadow Qi to create a few of the pieces of armor. I could mainly only create sections of the under armor. It was a fine-scaled suit made of something, but I could only summon it on a single arm or the front and back of my torso. I would have to try and be very selective about where a blow landed.
The bindings were easy to use; I just connected a small amount of Qi to the shadows around me, and I could feel their borders. From that edge of darkness, I could reach out and try and hamper the movements of anything. The amount of Qi used determined just how strong that binding was. The blades formed far more solid than I would have initially thought. Summoning them was as easy as thinking about picking them up from the racks in my core space or drawing them from their sheaths.
I braced myself and focused on not using all of the shadow-aspected Qi I was collecting to try the real test, shadow step. Around the border of the room was a shadow cast by an overhang that blocked the light from above. As I leaned back into it, imagining going through the portal in my core space, I felt the resistance from the barrier of the shadow. I thought about moving to the other side of the room and felt myself partially gripped and pulled along the border of the room. I only traveled about ten paces to the right before the embrace of the shadow pushed me back out into normal space. The shadow had enveloped me in an instant and moved me through another dimension of space. When I moved, however, it was only along the border of this barrier; it would require far more Qi to actually merge myself through the barrier and onto the other side.
That was it; I had tested each. How I was going to use them in combat was anyone’s guess at this point. I was tired, and though I could refresh myself, I could not go completely without sleep yet.
I rested in bed and cycled my Qi. In the five hours I had to sleep, my Qi would be fully refreshed, and my body and I would hopefully have cultivated enough shadow Qi to be useful in tomorrow’s dungeon run.