Chapter 58 The Southeastern Gaze

After drinking three smoothies, Evernya walked out of the patio door to train. Evernya trotted out into the yard, telekinetically grabbing five, five kilogram balls along with two weightless balls on her way toward her dome. Once she sat down cross-legged on top of her dome, she dropped the two weightless balls onto her lap, then used her suit computer to set them to five kilograms.

After slowing down her orbit, she easily fit the sixth ball into orbit, leaving the seventh ball on her lap for later. She sped up her orbit, testing how it felt. The balls zoomed around her shoulders for several minutes as she allowed her mind to adjust to the strain. Once comfortable, she extended the orbit outward near her limit, tweaking the speed as she went.

Evernya retracted her orbit back and slowed it to prepare for the seventh ball. Satisfied with her orbit’s pace, she levitated the seventh ball off her lap to join the others. With a mental pulse, she accelerated her orbit. Unsatisfied by the slight increase in mental strain, Evernya pushed her orbit to its limit, rapidly accelerating and decelerating while expanding and shrinking her orbit.

Soon she became bored with this too, so she took a risk and changed it up. She fought against the momentum as she forced her orbit to slow to a stop. She split her mind seven ways, moving each ball independently. At first, the balls moved according to her will, performing simple maneuvers like sliding a meter back and forth or a small circle, but once she tried to perform more complex movements, the strain increased exponentially.

A sharp pain shot through her brain when she attempted to perform a figure eight with each of her seven balls independently. Instinctively knowing she was at her current limit, she pulled the seven balls back in and set them in orbit once more. With her head still throbbing from bouncing off her control limit, Evernya closed her eyes, allowing the gentle pull on her mind to relax her. Soon she descended into a sleep-like meditation, staying this way unmoving for over an hour.

Out of nowhere, Evernya’s eyes sprung open, shining as bright as the sun. Her orbit changed from a uniform circular pattern to a more solar system like pattern, with each ball orbiting further away from her at slightly different paces. Next, her cross-legged body levitated a meter off the dome before rotating toward the southeast. Evernya’s body remained in this position for another hour until she rotated back northward, facing the lake as she landed back on the dome. After her orbit returned to its simple uniform circular form, her burning bright eyes dropped closed.

A few minutes later, her eyes once again fluttered open, feeling a dissipating urge to travel southeast. She observed her surroundings with confusion, spotting an elf standing on the patio, staring at her with amazement.

“Finally, wake up?” Asked Meira upon gaining the attention of her kitten.

“Wake up?” Questioned Evernya with growing confusion.

Evernya glanced down at the time on her suit computer, causing her eyes to widen. “What happened!? I lost over two hours!” Shouted Evernya.

“Wow, so it was that long. I’ve been trying to get your attention for over half an hour. What did you do to cause this?” Inquired Meira, watching her kitten slid down the dome and trotted toward her, all while she maintained her orbit.

Evernya responded when she reached the patio. “I tried to move all seven balls independently, but I kept getting a sharp pain in my head, so I meditated for a while to recover. Soon after I started meditating, I felt relaxation flood my mind, then nothing.”

A realization came to Meira, causing her to shake with excitement even more so than finding out her kitten could become an enchantress. “Oh, my! If I am right, you may have hit the jackpot!”

Meira materialized her tablet enthusiastically, reading through the data received from Evernya’s suit from the last two hours. Her hands trembled so much the tablet nearly fell from her excited grasp as she rapidly read through the pages of readings.

Meira returned her attention to her kitten, on the verge of exploding from enthusiasm. “I don’t know how you did it! It should be impossible to stumble upon something like this by accident!”

Evernya’s patience reached a tipping point, prompting her to yell. “What did I do!?”

Meira ignored her kitten’s outburst as she materialized a familiar orb in her hands.

“Is that what I think it is?” Evernya inquired, eyeing the dull gray melon-sized orb.

Meira responded, temporarily bottling her excitement as she activated the orb with her tablet. “Similar, orbs like this one that only measure mana grade are available to the public. Since most people can sense each other’s mana grade, they left it off the controlled list, unlike the magic class reading variant. I never used it on you before because I had a good idea what your mana grade was. Now please cut the connection to your orbit before pushing mana into the orb.” Ordered Meira with barely concealed excitement.

Evernya complied, still confused by Meira’s reaction. The moment her balls land on the ground, Meira shoved the orb into her kitten’s hands. After ten seconds, the orb turned green. “As I thought, you reached grade 6, 6.01, to be exact,” mumbled Meira as she read her tablet intently.

“That’s awesome, but I doubt that caused your reaction.” Prompted Evernya, sick of Meira dragging it out.

“Awakened Grade 6 at your age is extraordinarily, but no, that’s not why. It’s how you got to grade 6 is what is so exciting.” Responded Meira vaguely, only increasing her kitten’s frustration.

Evernya took a deep breath to rein in her annoyance before she asked the next question. “Ok, then how did I get there?”

“You somehow stumbled upon a Mana Cultivation Technique,” answered Meira, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“I have an idea where this is going, but what does this mean for me?” Inquired Evernya, pulling up several cultivation novels from her earthen memory.

Practically bouncing with excitement, Meira explained. “Well, for one you can train your mana grade at an increased rate. Even with your talents, it should have taken you months for the last bit you needed for grade 6. To make it worse, the rate becomes exponentially harder after each grade as you approach your natural limit. I don’t know how effective your particular method is, but just the point you have one is a miracle. What makes little sense is how you stumbled upon it and how you can use it without a bloodline.”

“What do you mean stumbled upon? I didn’t do anything different.” Evernya questioned, more confused than ever.

“Wait, you know how to levitate yourself? I haven’t taught you how to Levitate yet.” Meira questioned in shock.

“I was levitating!?” Evernya exclaimed, mirroring Meira’s shock

“You don’t know? I thought you did that on purpose.” Said Meira, staring at her kitten in bewilderment.

To clear up some confusion, Meira showed her kitten a video on her tablet. What Evernya saw in the video caused the appraisal orb to slip from her hands. The video depicted her levitating a meter above the dome with the seven balls orbiting her in seven separate orbits, forming a solar system with her at the center. What shocked her the most was her brightly glowing eyes gazing off into the distance.

“What the hell happened to me!!” Evernya exclaimed, shaking with fright as the blank, blazing eyed expression burned itself into her memory.

Oblivious to her kitten’s fright, Meira continued to explain. “I’ve never witnessed someone cultivating, but from what I have heard, they enter a trance-like state every time. My theory is you temporarily unsealed your bloodline, allowing you to cultivate, but I have no idea how.”

Evernya buried her fear in favor of learning more. “Why do you think I only temporarily unlocked my bloodline?”

“Do you know your family name?” Inquired Meira with a hint of hope.

“No, I didn’t have time to choose one why?” Evernya replied with ever-present confusion, tail forming a question mark.

Expecting this answer, Meira explained her reasoning. “If you had a bloodline, you would know your family name and the bloodline name. They are always the same, but since you don’t know, it means the seal on your bloodline reengaged. If your bloodline were active, you would instinctively know the name of the cultivation method, how to recreate it, along with any other special abilities of your bloodline. Now, if your bloodline is severed or sealed, all this knowledge will erase from your mind. For example, I remember my family name and know it’s the same as my bloodline, but I can’t remember anything past that.”

“That is freaky,” Evernya commented, imagining an on-and-off switch on specific knowledge.

“Yeah, bloodline magic usually is.” Agreed Meira with a nod.

“So, do you know what I was staring at?” Asked Evernya.

“No, I flew up to see, but there is nothing but endless trees. I’ve personally explored every meter of the forest in every direction for one hundred kilometers over the years, so I know nothing is close. You were staring southeast, but there is no telling how far southeast.”

“Just as I woke up, I felt a compulsion to travel southeast, but it faded after a few seconds,” Evernya added, joining Meira at the patio table.

“Fascinating. Maybe Thomas would know more. Since he is a Psion, he may know something related to psionics to the southeast. I’ll call him later tonight for his take on this.” Meira stated, sliding a red smoothly across the table to her kitten.

“So, what do you want me to do now? I think I am done training telekinesis for the day.” Evernya asked between gulps of her smoothie.

“Well, I came out here to check out how you were doing. It’s a bit too early to eat dinner, also known as your bedtime, so maybe I could teach you how to levitate. I know its telekinesis, but everyone wants to learn how to fly.” Meira enticed.

Stifling a yawn, Evernya replied, “As tempting as that is, I think I’ll pass. The video showing me levitating was just too creepy. Besides, I feel a little worn out, so I think I’ll eat an early dinner and stagger to bed.”

“Well, you spent two hours levitating in the air, acting as a solar system. Cultivating is extremely mana heavy, hence why most bloodline owning families monopolize the best locations along lay lines or any other high mana areas in major cities. Yet you did it in the middle of my backyard. Sure there is more mana in the air here than in a big city, but it’s still way too thin to maintain cultivation without burning through your own mana.” Meira explained, having expected her kitten’s response.

Contrary to Meira’s expectations, her comment re-piqued Evernya’s curiosity. “What exactly happened when I cultivated? You seemed to have seen something in my readings.”

Meira smiled at her kitten’s childlike curiosity as she replied. “What happens when someone is cultivating is a closely guarded secret among the upper echelon. What I’ve pieced together over the years is when someone cultivates their mana moves in a complex pattern throughout their mana system, stimulating their mana core to strengthen and expand. A stronger mana core means it allows one’s mana to increase in potency faster, while a bigger mana core allows for higher capacity. When I say bigger, I don’t mean in the physical sense, at least on the outside. The mana core is a mysterious organ that I doubt we will ever understand, but one thing is for sure is the inside volume doesn’t match the outside diameter.”

After taking a breath, Meira continued her lecture. “Now, back to your question. Mana cultivation bypasses the natural limit of one’s mana system. Normally, a magical gradually increases in mana grade and capacity over time as their mana core strengthens and expands until they reach their natural limit. One way to speed this up is to absorb mana cores from mana beasts as you did before, but this has a limit and your mana grade will never exceed what your mana core can handle, halting progress until the mana core strengthens itself naturally. Cultivation won’t directly increase your mana grade, but it removes this bottleneck, allowing for much faster growth. On average, someone who cultivates regularly will progress two to three times faster than someone who doesn’t. Cultivation is one of the primary reasons the old families stay on top. It doesn’t help these families also monopolize the resources to speed up training.”

Evernya fell silent, deep in thought, for several minutes before speaking. “So, I have the potential to be on par with these nobles if I can figure out how to unlock my bloodline?”

At Evernya’s question, Meira’s excitement reignited. “You do, that’s why I’m so excited! If you permanently unlock your bloodline, that may be enough to give you some breathing room. Aside from the benefits of the bloodline itself, having a bloodline is like a rite of passage into the upper echelons. It doesn’t mean you won’t have issues from people, but in general, you will garner respect like a noble. Plus, as a bonus, a bloodline grants you access to tier 1 cities. Basically, a bloodline opens a lot of doors closed to most of us.” Meira explained, bubbling in her chair with excitement.

“Cool. I don’t think I want to deal with a bunch of rich people. No offense, but it is nice to have the option. I hate having options blocked, even if I don’t plan to take them.” Evernya commented, lacking Meira’s enthusiasm.

“Oh, you will want to visit tier 1 cities! All the best resources and information are available in the inner circle. The upper echelon loves to hog all the best things and deny others access.” Meira complained, enthusiasm turned to annoyance.

Evernya turned silent again, trying to process all the new information with her tired brain. “That’s enough. I need time to wrap my head around all of this. Just when I thought I had parts of myself figured out, this happens.”

“Let’s go inside and feed you. It’s only a little after six, so it’s early to go to bed, but oh well.” Directed Meira, standing up from her chair, leading Evernya inside.

As usual, after eating, a food coma forced her to zombie walk to her bedroom, just barely stripping naked before passing out on the bed.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, with consistent progress in her magic and physical capabilities. She worked her way up to running over an hour, averaging just under three minutes per kilometer.

On the magic front, she could now orbit ten, five kilograms balls but couldn’t control them all independently yet. She still refused to learn how to levitate herself because of the cultivation incident. Her bloodline hadn’t unsealed itself since either, and Meira’s research came up blank.

After a long week, Evernya fell asleep, satisfied with her progress, dreading Meira’s plans for the coming week.