After logging out Logan felt very hungry, he had missed lunch while being engrossed playing the game. Since his parents were out to work he made his way into the kitchen and ate the lunch that his mom had made before leaving for work.

Man it’s a good thing I came home. I really missed mom’s cooking, it can’t compare with my measly cooking skills, and if this was a game she definitely has a master level skill in cooking.

After lunch Logan decided to go for a walk around his hometown and see if anything has changed in the neighborhood, after all it had been years since he last came home.

So he put on his running shoes and left his house in a brisk walk around the block.

Well the smiths seem to have won a lottery otherwise they would never spend money on a new coat of paint for that old house. The D’Costa family has another kid? Does Mr. D’Costa not know about condoms? He already had 3 kids before this one!

Thinking such things Logan walked around the block reacquainting himself with his neighbors and waving his hand to whoever he recognized. 5 mins later he stood in front of his old high school. He was reminiscing about the fun he had in this place when he remembered he had yet to call Bernard.

Logan started walking back home as he placed a call to Bernard on his altor.

“Yo birdie, how are you doing?!” exclaimed Logan as soon as the call connected.

“Heh, finally found the time to tear yourself away from Claire?” teased birdie.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Anyway how did you know harry was in town?” asked Logan.

“Unlike you harry called me as soon as he came back. He plans to have a reunion with all 4 of us.” Said Birdie further teasing Logan.

“Huh, how’s castle doing now? He still doesn’t pick up any calls I make” enquired Logan.

Castle was the nickname of his 3rd best friend. His full name was Jim Castle but he liked to go by Castle. He was a music geek and was studying sound engineering in the same college as Birdie.

It seems that Castle had gotten into a fight with some people in his college and hurt his ears, which were vital for his sound engineering course.

The college had expelled the people who injured him but also said that if he wants to continue his studied he had to find some other way of hearing. He could hear through the microphone of altor but the college rejected it, said that the sound won’t be natural.

What happened was that an uncle of the person who was expelled was on the board of directors and he wanted to expel Castle too.

In this moment Logan came to the rescue. Since Logan heard his situation, he consulted with his father about the solution for the incident. The damage done was not to the ears directly, instead it was done to the nerve endings in the ear that were responsible for transmitting the signals.

Replacing them was not difficult but it cost a lot of money and Castle was not from a wealthy family. He even refused to accept his friend’s money.

So Logan tricked Castle into saying that there was a new invention that fit into the altor that was proven to have natural sounds and asked him to come for the operation to fit the device.

Castle trusted Logan so he didn’t ask too many questions and went for the exam. What happened was that they did the operation to replace his nerves.

Castle was enraged and happy/thankful at the same time, he didn’t know what to say so he refused to pick up Logan’s calls.

“He is doing well. Those nerves seem to be better than his original ones. Don’t worry he is not angry with you anymore, just that he doesn’t know what to say. He’ll definitely talk to you in the reunion” consoled Birdie.

“Well, that’s good. Anyway Birdie, I started to play Dragon’s Roar yesterday and it is unbelievable!” exclaimed Logan.

“You started to play DR? Did the sun rise from south? How? I tried to make you play so many games before you always refused.

How come you started playing on your own? I had prepared a 2000 word speech to convince you to play the game! This is not fair, I need compensation for this waste of time and effort. You have to treat me to a BBQ next time we meet” said Birdie.

“Well, my parents were involved in its creation and since it was virtual reality I thought it would be a good idea to try it. As for the treat, we’ll see” said Logan.

“So how did you like the game? Where are you right now? Which class did you choose? No wait I know, you definitely chose the mutated human so which race did you choose? What level are you right now? How many skills you have?” Birdie raided Logan with questions.

“Slow down slow down, you always get hyper whenever a game is involved. I liked the game a lot! The graphics feel real and the physics of the system are top notch.

Combat is awesome, it feels even better than in real life since there is no need to hold back or anything. As for the race, I chose mutated human with wolf and hummingbird mutation” said Logan after which they continued to talk about their experiences in the game while Logan made it back home in a leisurely pace.

After dropping the call, Logan had a shower and proceeded to Login back into the game.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Logan woke up feeling well rested. It had been six hours since he went to sleep and it was almost morning. Logan walked to the courtyard and started his warm up while waiting for his master. Thren came in just as Logan finished stretching.

“Ho! You are already awake and ready I see. Then we will begin your training. First and foremost you need to maintain the purity of your Ki at all times.

You regenerate the lost Ki during combat but the purity of Ki will drop since you are not purifying it. Now I will teach you a method through which you can purify your Ki without meditation.

You will have to practice this technique to such an extent that the next time you absorb Ki it should directly get purified before entering your dantian.” Explained Thren.

“Yes master, I’ll make sure to practice it diligently” replied Logan.

“First you have to stand in this posture, with your knees bent in a 90 degree and your spine perpendicular to the ground.

Stretch your arms in front of you so that they are parallel to the ground (basically a horse stance).

This will enable you to feel closer to nature. Then cut-off your senses, feel your inner energy.

Draw in the energy from outside, meld it with the inner energy to form Ki, but instead of sending it to the dantian have it flow through the spinal cord.

This is something that most people don’t know, the spinal cord had 5 spots called chakras. First you have to open these chakras.

These spots form a conduit from your brain to the base of the spinal cord. It helps to better wield your spirit. If you form filters in this spots and then pass your Ki through here, impurities are easily removed.

So your first step is to feel these chakras. Stand in this stance and keep your back straight, feel the internal energy. These will appear as a congregation of energy.

You cannot sense all of them at the same time, you will have to sense them one by one. Now start, open your eyes only after you sense the first chakra.” Said Thren.

Logan stood in the indicated posture. Instantly he felt connected to the earth and felt as if he was unmovable.

Then he cut off himself and felt his internal energy. He made sure to keep his spinal cord erect and tried to sense the chakras.

He couldn’t sense anything. He kept trying until he felt mentally fatigued and opened his eyes.

Thren was sitting cross legged in front of him with his eyes open and a smile on his lips.

“Master, I couldn’t sense anything” said Logan sounding disappointed.

“Don’t be disappointed, it’s not possible to succeed in the first try. I’ll give you a hint, try to follow the flow of your internal energy. Recuperate first and then try again” said Thren

Logan had been trying for 2 hours straight and so he rested for an hour before giving it a try again.

This time after cutting off his senses he tried to follow the flow of energy through his body.

He didn’t know whether his energy would flow through or not, so he kept observing it. After some time getting accustomed to it, he saw that the internal energy near his heart was in fact not constant, it was entering at some points and leaving at others.

It was just that the speed was too slow thus he was not able to see it before. Now that he saw it, he tried to follow the energy in a hurry but he lost track of it.

So he tried again, but this time slowly. But he still lost track of it. Then what he did was, he followed the energy a little outside the heart area, when he felt that he was losing track, he stopped and tried to get accustomed to the situation.

Logan discovered that the only way to feel the flow was to move a small distance and get accustomed to the new area, otherwise he would lose track and start anew.

Thus Logan made progress slowly and followed the energy patiently.

Outside Thren was observing Logan’s progress and let out a pleased

smile.

“It seems I was right to take him in as a disciple, he is really talented to figure it out by himself to not rush but do it patiently”