“What’s with the coming down from the trees comment?” I asked. “I mean, I get calling the bad guys rats and insinuating that Kokoli had something to do with it. Is it because they are monkeys and monkeys swing from trees? Was that speciesist?”

Lena barely looked down at me as we headed back to her suite. It was a look that suggested something along the lines of “are you mental?”

“Kokoli is almost entirely forest. Most of the villages and cities are located in the treetops...” she said patiently.

“Ah, so it was a jab at them but not in as offensive a way as I’d imagined...” I replied, feeling embarrassed at my ignorance.

“I wonder what’s below on the forest floor then. Is there a caste system in place where the well off are in the treetops but the poor and underprivileged are below? The rich get to see the sky while the destitute live in darkness?” I wondered aloud.

Lena gave me a long-suffering look. Look honey, you said you wanted to marry this, this is what you get.

“Prime... I am going to speak with his Majesty, my brother. I shall let him know what has happened. You... go find something to occupy yourself with,” she said, wearily.

“Can do,” I returned with a wink and casual salute.

She rolled her optics at me and headed off to her room with her maid, Priss, following after her.

“I guess I’ll find Corporal Baika and let her know that they’re on deck,” Toadwart said to no one in particular.

“Sounds good,” Wendy agreed. “I’m feeling a bit peckish myself. Once Baika is on, I’ll slip over to the temple commissary.”

“Hey Fuzz Butt, you might want to hit the showers first. You’re caked in blood,” I suggested.

“Fuzz Butt?!” she asked indignantly.

“You also stink of ichor. Go get cleaned up. I’ll keep guard till Baika and the others get here,” I said.

“I stink too? I thought Automata couldn’t actually smell anything,” she pouted.

“I can’t actually smell anything, I’m lying. I just assume you stink since you look like Carrie on prom night.”

“Who’s Carrie?” Toadwart asked.

“A girl that was tricked into thinking she was the bell of the ball until her nasty classmates dumped buckets of blood all over her in front of everyone as she was being honored,” I dead panned.

“That poor thing, how horrible,” Wendy said, sympathizing.

“Yeah, she snapped and murdered everyone in the whole town with her awakened magic powers.”

“Ah. Well... Bit of a cautionary tale, that. I’m going to go clean up then before such an urge overtakes me,” Wendy winced.

I gave her back a little wave as she slinked off. I was always amazed at how little noise she made when she moved, given her size, but then tiger paws were tailored for stealth ambushes. I switched over to my “Orcan” skin and wandered off. I figured since that disguise was the one seen showing an interest in the temple’s martial arts, I might as well stick with it.

I couldn’t find the sweeping kid, but I did see a few other students doing their thing. It was beginning to turn evening so most of the ones I found were involved in pre-dinner chores or meditation. No one seemed to pay me much mind, which was fine by me.

One of the buildings looked slightly more interesting than the others so I approached it. Inside, I found a small desk with a wizened fish person in well-worn robes engrossed in a book. Behind the desk, shelves upon shelves were filled with scrolls and old books.

Curious, I approached one of the shelves and reached out for a scroll, only to find my arm hooked by a cane. The librarian held the other end of the cane, but didn’t bother to look away from his book.

“Students only. No outsiders. Get lost,” he rattled off.

I pushed my arm down and swept it around, sliding out of the hook via “the river flows around the rock” and ending in the “the grateful student offers his bread” ready stance. The old fish raised an eyebrow and looked at me for the first time.

“I just want to peek at them. I won’t take anything,” I tried.

The cane hooked around again, aiming for the back of my neck, which I countered with “the clumsy crab tumbles in the crashing waves” and returned to offering bread. Who named these things? It was kinda weird performing the moves. It wasn’t quite like I was on autopilot, but my HUD provided me with an autosuggest for a given move followed by a shadow image of myself to sync with. It all had a very “guided tutorial” sort of feel to it.

“Who taught you that? Who’s your master?” the old fish demanded.

“Sorry elder, I don’t have one. I happened upon the basic level manuscript and picked up some moves,” I explained.

“Frog wash. Don’t lie to me boy,” he accused.

I noticed that another fish person had entered the building. This one was younger than the old guy but probably middle aged with thick black hair tied in a top knot. Without a word, he stepped up to me and thrust out a palm for my chest. I stepped back and brought my arm up in a simple block. He waited for a moment as if expecting a scripted follow up but dropped his arm instead.

I tilted my head in confusion and he raised an eyebrow.

“Indeed, just the basics, as you say. Master Yu Shu, I’ll keep an eye on this one. What could it hurt to let him glance at the manuscripts?” the middle aged fish offered.

Master Yu Shu grunted and went back to his book. The new guy looked at the shelves and selected a tome and handed it to me.

“You just looked at the beginner’s book and mastered it, you claim? Try this,” he said as I took the book from him.

I flipped through the pages, scanning them as I’d done before. When I reached the end, I got a system alert stating “Chongjibo zhi quan level 4 has been scanned. Please scan levels 2 and 3 before proceeding with installation.”

I handed the book back to him.

“That’s it? Just a quick peek was all you wanted?” he asked.

“Yeah I have the gist of it, but I need to take a look at the second and third manuscripts to make sense of it,” I requested.

The master narrowed his eyes in doubt but pulled the request books just the same.

Scanning...

Scan complete.

Chongjibo zhi quan level 2 has been acquired

Chongjibo zhi quan level 3 has been acquired

Chongjibo zhi quan level 4 has been acquired

I had no idea how far along in their system “level 4” it still felt pretty basic to me.

“Right. All good. Now that first book makes sense. Mind if I go further?” I asked.

He chuckled bitterly, but stepped back, sweeping his hand to indicate the shelves of books.

“Help yourself, dear guest. Though just to view the manuscripts is useless without an understanding of dao and deep meditation to strengthen your meridians,” he said, haughtily.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” I said. “Still it won’t hurt to look, right?”

I took the next book in the series and scanned it. I found a total of eighteen books in the core system. Each book seemed to be a single level in Chongjibo zhi quan, bringing me up to level 18 upon completion of scanning and installation. Neat.

Each of my levels corresponded to a sublevel of one of the four phases in the system, consisting of Coral, Calcite, Aragonite, and Pearl. The sublevels were named for various colors which gave no indication of progression on their own; which I found stupid.. Coral had three levels, Calcite had four, and both Aragonite and Pearl had six levels. It would seem that only the temple master could show me the nineteenth book.

The master wouldn’t let me look at any of the specialty scrolls either. He said that only those with a profound understanding of dao could qualify to look at them and he wouldn’t budge on it.

From what I’d scanned, none of the dao and meridian stuff applied to me thanks to my Automata anatomy so all I could do was replicate the physical movements of the system. I was still curious about this dao business though.

“Thanks for the sneaky peeks. I guess without the dao stuff I’ve gone as far as I can,” I said.

“Is that so? Let’s see if you’re as quick a study as you would have me believe,” he replied coolly.

I followed him out of the library to an open area that looked like it was used for sparing. I noticed that dinner had let out and the courtyard was filling with curious onlookers.

“Show me forms one through eight,” he demanded with a bit of a sneer.

Oooh. Was this the play where the middle management wants to put the outsider in his place for being arrogant? I shrugged and adopted the “Offering Bread” stance. In my HUD a list of options appeared for various moves that could be performed from this position. One of the options was for “Form Progression”. I selected the option and let my body automatically flow from one move to the next like I was on demo mode.

It was weird for me, to say the least, but it REALLY annoyed the middle management master. I couldn’t see myself perform, of course, but I was certain that my forms were mechanically precise. I completed the final requested form and heard one of the bewildered students whisper that I knew the “White Aragonite Form”.

“Want me to keep going? I can go up to Blue-Green Pearl with those books you lent me,” I quipped.

“Impossible. It’s impossible that anyone could master the teaching with such cursory study,” he complained.

I shrugged.

“Theory without practice is useless. Biti Cao, come and provide our guest some instruction,” he ordered one of the onlookers.

I looked around to see the spoiled young master from yesterday step out from the crowd, shadowed by his toadies.

“You sure about this?” I asked middle management.

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Just a light spar to help you understand the teachings,” he said with the oily calm of a serpent.

With the additional levels, the available move options opened up considerably. I didn’t know what level this kid was at but it wasn’t even a contest. I nimbly dodged and guided him around while barely moving from my position. A few times I had to stop myself from actually connecting with a strike or blocking too hard. The last thing I wanted was to split the kid’s face with my magisteel fists. Even when his followers jumped in, hoping to overwhelm me, I found I could counter them with ease.

“I see that I will have to educate you myself as an instructor of this temple,” middle fish said as he pulled the frustrated Biti Cao back.

I shrugged again and adopted the advanced “knife edge divides the crashing wave” stance.

“I will give you three moves, receive them well,” he sneered and brought his hands up in a simple guard.

He shot forward with a faint glow surrounding him. He was much faster than I was expecting. I twisted and fell backward, just barely avoiding his kick and dodging back via a back handspring. The master didn’t give me a chance to recover and pressed on with his attack, trading a variety of hand and leg strikes.

The system countered him, blocking and dodging, though I kept on the defensive. The light around his limbs flared as he slapped my guard out of the way followed up with a rising uppercut that popped me up into the air. He took a half step forward then dropped to a knee, pulling his hands in close then lunged in. Did... did he just do forward, down, down diagonal, forward?

“Bodou Quan!” he screamed as I dropped back into range.

He hit me with a double fist to the chest accompanied by an explosion of light and energy. The blast didn’t do much damage to my armor but the force of it sent me flying.

I sailed across the yard and smashed into the wall of a building. The wall crumbled around me but held up enough to keep me from going further. If I hadn’t been an Automata, I’d likely be dead. I shoved some rubble off of me in time to see the master in the air above me and coming in at high speed. Light swirled and gathered around his fist, growing in intensity.

Just before his flaming punch landed, a blur of motion intercepted and caught his fist, completely extinguishing his attack. The temple master chuckled and smiled warmly to the both of us.

“Master Chou Lian, it would seem this child is a rare talent. We wouldn’t wish to obstruct fate,” he said patiently.

“Of course not Grand Master. I was merely giving our honored guest some friendly pointers,” Chou Lian said, pulling back.

“Then it is all fine,” the Head Priest, Grand Master Yu Fan said patiently.

Chou Lian huffed and walked off, yelling at some of the onlookers to go to their dorms.

“Young one, you should go back to your room and rest as well. Tomorrow, I would like to have some of your time, if I may,” the ancient fish said.

“Of course, Grand Master,” I said, humbly, giving him a palm-over-fist bow.

Ah thunder crackers, what had I gotten myself into. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing about it from my traveling companions.