I pulled out the table and chairs getting everyone something to eat before we rested, I might just leave the meal settings out in the workshop for now on, no real reason to keep it in my storage ring, especially if we just use the workshop as a safe room for breaks.

We were all quiet as we ate our dinner, everyone lost in their own thoughts. I pulled up my status screen to go over my progress. I when not actively fighting, I had been working on clearing my Mind Meridian as we went and I wanted to see how far left I had to go.

[i] [John Baker status screen]

My Mind Meridian was already at sixty-seven percent. With this environment and the Meridian cleansing pills, I should be able to finish opening that meridian in only two hours. With that done, I should be able to really dig into practicing my formations. We had so much gear that had no enhancements what so ever. Rowan should start practicing his enchanting as well.

While I had my status screen open, I went over my other gains for the day. I had already cleared out the prompts earlier between fights when we took a bit to regain energies and stamina.

I managed to increase my Acrobatics skill by a rank when I had to use the pillars to avoid getting pounced on again, my Perception (sound) increased by one, which made sense since sight lines were very limited and I had to rely on my hearing more and more. Polearms went up by two whole ranks. Those Hellcats were fast and hard to hit. Two other skills went up by one rank as well. My Spiritual Sense managed to go up as I tried to push through the dungeon interference, and my War Leader skill also increased by one, as I helped coordinate our fights. Over all, decent gains for a day full of fighting.

I finished my meal, moved over to sit against a wall to begin clearing out the final thirty-three percent of my mind meridian. This was the first time entering a meditative state within the workshop. Just like how I could feel my core, my Dantian, I could feel the core of the Workshop. The Ki pool it had felt absolutely massive. It contained over three times the energy that I did.

My Ki levels were low from the last fight, and I hadn’t had time to refill it yet. I wondered if I could tap directly into the Ki pool of the Workshop to fill my pool. I knew I could direct it into the tools to power them, so it should be possible…. right?

I reached out to the vast pool of energy and connected to it. For a moment, it felt like there was a hard barrier surrounding it and it wouldn’t let me pass. Then something seemed to click, and I could reach inside the core and pull some towards myself.

The barrier must have been the Workshop’s security measures, and the click was it recognizing me as an authorized user or something like that. Wither way it worked, and I could draw Ki from my Smithy and into myself. With the Smithy having its own Ki regeneration, and that regeneration sped up in the dungeon, this opened up some interesting possibilities.

Well, I could focus on those possibilities later. For now, my Ki pool was full, and I started pushing Ki through my Mind Meridian. Clearing the Mind Meridian left me with a strange sensation. It was almost like an itch inside my brain as the impurities and gunk got gradually worn away. I drew in a bit more Ki from the workshop, to replace the sixteen Ki my Mind Meridian could hold, and did my best to increase the pressure and force the Ki to move faster, clearing the detritus away quicker.

It was working. Every time the meridian opened a bit more, I pulled in that much more Ki. I couldn’t pull in more than my maximum capacity, but I could squeeze my other meridians, increasing the pressure that way, and forcing the Ki to flow like a rampaging river.

The faster I pushed my Ki, the more that strange sensation in my head changed. It turned from an itchy sensation in the middle of my brain to a dull throbbing ache, but I pushed on.

The pressure in my head kept building as I pushed on, until finally, it felt like a dam bursting in my mind. All that pressure burst through, rebounding off the inside of my skull and crashing around before flooding back to my Dantian.

I slumped over from the relief of it all being over. My cheeks felt wet. I reached up and touched it and my fingers came away, red with blood. It was then that I could spell the coppery tang of it. I touched my ears and nose as well; blood had come out of each of them. Maybe I pushed it too far that time. Well, it was over. I didn’t seem to be missing any health, and my meridian was now fully open.

Congratulations,

You have opened your Fifth Meridian, the Brain Meridian. Opening this meridian will have several immediate effects on your body and possibly more effects will appear as you progress

+6 Intelligence

+6 Wisdom

+30% mental resistance

Whew, finally. My mind, sorry, Brain Meridian, was fully open. I can now cycle Ki into my eyes without causing a constant stamina drain. I can get to work practicing my Ki Formations and get my equipment and the others upgraded, unless they prefer enchanted gear.

I stood up and looked around. Cody was sleeping off to the side. Magnus and Rowan seemed to be meditating, and Rukia was chasing something in her doggy dreams. At least, that’s what I assumed from the way her paws were twitching. I stretched my tight back and checked the time. I had been meditating for a little over an hour and a half, a bit shorter than I expected.

After cleaning up the blood with a wet towel, I went over to the formations bench and went through my inventory, looking for something to practice on besides my equipment.

I had little to use on formations practice. I needed to collect some different materials that we didn’t care too much about. My best options for now were to either use the Imp Brood Mother's horns, or the fangs and claws of the Manticore we fought that morning. I had plenty of spirit beast cores to experiment with. Since we hadn’t discussed distribution of the dungeon loot, and there were more of the fangs and claws, I used the Manticore parts.

Each of the Manticore claws was about four inches long and as thick as my thumb, and since there were sixteen of them, I started with those. I pulled out my Ki Formations Manual and went over what bindings were available within.

There were six different Ki Bindings that could be combined in a variety of different ways, well the book only gave me six, there were a lot more Bindings out there, but I was going to either discover them myself, parse them out of our Ki based equipment or straight up buy them from the marketplace. I was sure the cost wouldn’t be cheap.

The book listed each binding in alphabetical order. They were: Condenser (Ki), Core Socket (capacity), Impact, Projection, Protection, and Sharpness. The Condenser looked like one of those Keltic mazes that you walked along in a spiral. It drew from the atmosphere, condensed it on its own and converted it to Ki. It was what allowed some Ki items to naturally recharge themselves, like Magnus’s hammer and the very smithy we were all in.

The Core socket allows the crafter to increase the amount of Ki an item could hold beyond its material limit. Steel seemed to only hold about twenty Ki, at least a steel weapon any way. The Socket allowed one to insert a spirit or demon beast core into the item. Half of the Core’s capacity would be lost during the conversion, but the rest would add to the material cap. So, unless the spirit beast was really weak, it would help.

The Projection Binding aids a cultivator in either using their projection techniques or allows the crafter to create a projection technique in the item itself. Theoretically, I could create a gun with this binding that fired off Ki bullets.

The protection and sharpness bindings were the simplest of the bindings, since they just enhanced the items’ natural traits. The protection increased the defense and durability of items permanently, while the sharpness… well, it makes weapons sharper. Increasing damage and armor penetration.

With the refresher of the bindings over, I carefully considered the best use for these claws. If I spent more time shaping them, I could turn them into weapons, or add them to other items. But in this case, I was thinking about just turning one into a necklace. The Claws were naturally above average in quality, so they could take two Bindings. I decided I would make a self-recharging Ki battery. With the Core socket to increase the capacity and the condenser to refill it, it should be a great passive way to get a boost of Ki without having to buy Ki infusion potions.

With my book opened to the correct page, and lightly scratching in my intended design, I got to work.

It took me two hours, three broken claws, three spirit beast cores turned to dust, and two skill ups before I finally had a working Ki Battery. It looked like even failed crafting can lead to insights which increased skill levels. The final spirit beast core was only a body rank 3, and it was my last spirit beast core. It increased the capacity of the claw by fifty points. I pulled up the item’s description to see the final results.

Name: Ki Battery

Quality: Above Average

Rarity: uncommon

Durability: 39/39

Weight: 3oz

Ki effects: gathers, condenses, and stores Ki from Essence

Ki Pool: 0/75

Recharge Rate: 3/hour

Well shit, I was hoping for a better result. It only generated three Ki per hour. It would take a full day, a bit over actually, to fill up on its own. I wasn’t expecting it to charge as fast as I did, but Thorbjorn recharges at one Ki every ten minutes. I didn’t even want to do the math on how much faster it was than my creation. With a sigh, I tied a length of para cord around the base of the claw and draped it over my neck.

It was my first intentional success; I would just draw from the workshop for now to top off my own Ki and fill the claw. At least I would have it for a quick recharge. Later, after we got some sleep, I could go over what I did wrong and how to improve it for the next time.

“I wonder,” I muttered to myself. Instead of going directly to carving out the lines to create the Bindings and the Ki pathways in the claws, I wanted to see how the Ki behaved in materials that came from a magic based beast. Not that I thought of it, I really should have done this first before going straight to trying to craft an Artifact.

With Ki flowing through my eyes, I watched carefully as I let a trickle of Ki leave my fingertips and enter the claw. The claw had a very faint, blue tinted radiance. When the ocher yellow light of ki entered the claw, it pushed the blue light back slowly. The blue light resisted being moved, making the Ki sluggish. I pulled back the Ki and focused deeply into the blue light.

As I tried to look deeper, I could feel the Ki in my eyes spiral tighter and building pressure. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. As the Ki spiral tightened, my focus narrowed and my view magnified. It felt like I was looking through a low powered microscope.

The diffuse blue light resolved into little motes. These motes clung to the very cellular structure of the claw itself. “It’s Mana.” I said to myself as I realized what the light was.

“What’s mana?” a voice behind me asked. Startled I turned quickly around. I really shouldn’t have done that. Severe dizziness struck me as the magnified vision spun, everything blurring around me. Nausea clenched my gut and I focused on not loosing my dinner. I released the Ki from my eyes and my vision returned to normal, which helped quite a bit.

“Woah, what happened? Are you ok?” Rowan rested his hand on my shoulder to steady my swaying.

“Ugh, yeah. What?” I replied dumbly. I shook my head for a moment and brought my thoughts back into focus. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

Rowan looked at me with concern, but when I seemed alright after a few moments, shrugged it off. “What was that you were saying about Mana?”

“Oh, I think I discovered a new use for Ki for my eyes. I managed to somehow give myself microscopic vision. I was using it to inspect this Manticore claw.” I said while gesturing with said claw. “I was trying to figure out why the Ki regeneration on this one,” I pointed to the one around my neck, “is so slow compared to Magnus’s hammer.”

“Right… and what does that have to do with mana?” he asked, clearly not seeing where this was going.

“Well, you see, I wanted to see how Ki moved through the material and I found this faint blue glow. When I focused in, which is when I accidentally gave myself microscopic vision, the glow resolved into little motes of light. When I looked deeper still, the motes resolved into little specks within each cell. That’s when I realized it was mana.”

Rowan thought for a few minutes, processing what I said before a light kindled in his eyes. Not a literal glowing light, but rather he had an idea or something. “I am never going to get used to that.” He muttered to himself before looking back at me. “I think I understand what you are talking about. It triggered something in my Arcane knowledge skill. That booked dumped a whole heck of a lot of info into my brain. But because of that, I don’t even know what all I know. You know?”

I chuckled at the phrasing. “I get what you are trying to say. So, my little discovery triggered something in your artificial memory?”

“Yup, its all about how Mana affects our bodies as we level up. Well, those of us on the Path of Mana anyways.” He said, some excitement entering into his voice.

I gestured for him to go on, intrigued.

“Each time we level, we get three attribute points to spend. But these aren’t just some arbitrary points that magically make us stronger… ok they do magically make us stronger, but… umm…”

I smiled at his embarrassment over his word choice. “So, your distributable attribute points actually hold some special property?” I asked, prompting him to continue with his explanation.

“Right. Well, um… you see each attribute point we can spend actually represents a bunch of mana that builds up within our bodies as we gain experience points. Actually, I need to explain a bit of what experience points are, really quick. The experience points we gain is kind of like another type of energy. Tied in with the life force, or overall power, or… well… I can’t really explain exactly what it is. But we pull it in to our bodies from monsters we kill, but it can also naturally accumulate as we increase our skills, or create things.” Rowan took a deep breath before continuing.

“Basically, its closely tied in with creation and growth, not just killing things. Anyways, this energy attracts bits of mana from our cores, in small enough amounts that it doesn’t affect our mana regen, and holds it. Once the experience reaches a threshold, which is the levels we gain, we can use that experience and mana mixture to improve our bodies and minds. So, each attribute point is a glob of modified mana that suffuses our bodies improving it.” Rowan finished.

“That’s kind of how Ki is for us cultivators. Each time I open a meridian, Ki leaves my Dantian through that meridian and gets absorbed into the body system it represents. So, when I opened my Muscle Meridian, the Ki was absorbed into my muscles, refining and reinforcing them. And the result is a six-point increase in my strength attribute.” I nodded as I saw the parallels between our two paths.

“When I tried to put Ki into this claw, I saw that the two energies couldn’t coexist. The Ki was pushing out the mana, but slowly. That’s probably why I couldn’t channel Ki through that bone axe, but even more so since it was enchanted and not just suffused with mana.” At this point I was more talking to my self than talking to Rowan.

“That’s probably why the Ki regeneration rate is so poor. And probably the failure rate I had.” I sighed deeply, “I really wish I had realized all this before using the last of my spirit cores. Hmm… but since I was still able to push Ki into the claw, and it pushed the mana before it… hmm… I might be able to replace all the mana in the material with Ki. That might increase my success rate if I don’t have any spirit or demon beast materials to work with.” I looked up as I realized Rowan was still there watching me.

“Sorry, but thanks for the help. I think you gave me a new idea for my crafting” I said.

“Yeah, no prob. Glad I could help?” Rowan replied, the last bit more of a confused question than a statement. But with a shrug, he went over to a corner and pulled out his sleeping gear and began to settle in for the night.

I turned back to the claw and this time, tried to recreate the sensation that allowed me to both see the energies and zoom in my vision.

[i] John’s character sheet at chapter 9

[Character Sheet] [Companion Sheet] [Settlement Menu] [Interface options] [System]

John Baker c4492

Sapient (Human)

Cultivation Rank: Body 4

Health points 73/95

Health regeneration: 18/day

Stamina 204/234

Stamina Regeneration: 18/minute

Ki 97/150

Essence 0/50

Defense 36 (16 Leather Armor, 20 Natural armor)

De-buffs:

Strength 22

Dexterity 18

Agility 18

Constitution 19

Endurance 18

Intelligence 16

Wisdom 15

Resistance:

Disease +30%

-50% food and water requirements

Meridians:

Bone: +6 Agility, +5 Defense, +5 unarmed damage

Dermis: +6 Dexterity, +10 Defense, +30% disease resistance

Stomach: +3 constitution, +3 Endurance, -50%food and water requirements

Muscle: +6 Strength, +5 Defense, +30% stamina pool

Mind: 67%

Skills:

Acrobatics Rank 3 (+6% jumping distance, +3% movement speed)

Athletics Rank 4 (+8% movement speed, -4% stamina cost)

Axes Rank 2 (+4% damage, +2% chance of debilitating injury)

Deception Rank 1 (+2% convincing, +1% to notice deception)

Evade Rank 3 (+6% evasion speed, -3% damage on failed evasion)

First Aid Rank 6 (+12% health regen, -6% de-buff timer)

Grapple Rank 1 (+2 effective Str, -1% Stamina Cost)

Identify Rank 7 (+14% to identify stronger, +7% more information)

Meditation Rank 6 (+12% cultivation speed, +6% mental resist)

Perception (sound) Rank 2 (+4% clarity, +2% distance)

Polearms Rank 8 (+16% dmg, +8% armor pen vs light & med armor)

Sense Motive Rank 1 (+2% to read emotion, +1% to detect deceptions)

Small Blades Rank 1 (+2% dmg, +.5% crit chance)

Spiritual Sense Rank 8 (+16% range, +8% to noticing concealed presence)

Spiritual sense range: 174 feet

Stealth Rank 5 (+10% to avoid notice, -5% stam cost)

War Leader Rank 2 (+4% party damage and defense)

Weapon smithing Rank 3 (+6% Damage, +3% higher quality)

Ki Skills:

Ki Smithing Rank 1

Ki Healing Self Rank 2

Ki Formation Mastery Rank 1

Special:

Bonded to Spirit Beast: You have bonded a Spirit beast. You and your Spirit Beast can always locate one another and share an empathic link, which allows for better understanding and alerts one when the other is in danger.

Unarmed attacks deal +5 damage

Ki Techniques/ability:

Bone Knuckle Duster: Rank 1

Cost 5 Ki, +10 damage from unarmed attacks

(Cost is held, Ki returns to pool when technique ends)

Ki Healing (self) 1hp/Ki

Ki Bullet Rank 2

Type: Attack (External) Ki: 20 Damage: 40 Range: 50 feet

Duration: instant Area: Target

Effect: compress your Ki into a small sphere and shoot it forth with the speed of your Cycling meridian.

Grace in Combat: Rank 3+

Type: internal, movement Range: Personal

Duration: concentration/5minutes Cost: 0/50 Ki per 5 minutes

Effect: Grace in combat has 2 stages.

Stage 1: While cycling the movement Technique, movement speed increased by 20%, coordination, proprioception and reaction times and reaction increased by 30%. No other technique may be used while at stage 1

Stage 2: at a cost of 50 points of Ki for every 5 minutes, the 30% increase to coordination, proprioception and reaction times increased to 100%. Other Ki techniques are useable at this time for a 50% increase in Ki expenditure.