Kapitel 12: Blood Refinement
Thirteen sat on the floor of his dorm room together with Nine. The both of them had their eyes closed and a few pretty stones, no larger than a thumb segment, rested in their hands.
Those were spirit stones, pieces of materialized qi found deep beneath the earth or in places of high spirituality. The ones in the children's hands had been refined into an orderly shape and size, each containing roughly the same amount of qi.
By holding one of these stones while cultivating, one could absorb the energy of the stone directly, rather than the surrounding qi. There were two benefits to this. Firstly, it was a lot more abundant, and so less time was spent gathering bits and pieces from the surroundings. But more importantly, the qi within spirit stones, especially refined ones, were a lot purer than the surrounding qi. Normally, when one cultivates, a great deal of the collected qi is wasted, as you must condense and refine it to a purer state, but with spirit stones that's not an issue, allowing one to cultivate much faster with its qi.
Normally, children at their stage wouldn't use up even one stone in a sitting, but they each held two now, because they had just taken Fundamental Refinement pills. These spherical pills, the ones that were held in the resource boxes given, and also granted as sparring rewards, are capable of allowing one to cultivate longer than ordinary without becoming 'bloated' so to speak.
Today was one of the eighth generations two weekly days off in which they were permitted to cultivate as they liked, and most among them were either cultivating their unique arts, or doing as Thirteen and Nine were now.
The first step in Fundamental Body Refinement was called Blood Refinement. It was done by repeating the process Thirteen had started a few days ago in combat training, and absorbing qi into the lungs, followed by the heart and the blood.
Thirteen would know his blood refinement was complete when the qi began to emanate from his arteries into his muscles while he cultivated.
When night began to fall, the two stones in Thirteen's hands had both been reduced to dust.
As he opened his eyes, thirteen felt marvelous. Every time he finished a cultivation session, everything seemed clearer to his senses. He could vaguely feel his muscles moving in accordance with each other beneath his skin, and could hear the chirps of birds outside the window with crystal clarity. That state soon vanished, but each time, just a tiny bit more of it would remain.
--
The next day in Theory Hall, Thirteen was taught about more than just language and mathematics for once, with Instructor Piers speaking on the kingdom, the continent, and the ongoing war.
Apparently, he was in the kingdom of Demia, ruled by a King Magnus. The continent, which Thirteen learned meant the landmass they were on, was called Prokos. Currently, the kingdom of Demia was at war with the Toubia Empire and the Nalduri Dynasty, both of which had formed a tentative alliance, faced with the Demia Kingdom.
Thirteen had thought that talk of kings and nations would be more interesting, but he was thoroughly bored throughout. It seemed that Nine felt the same as Thirteen soon noticed a piece of torn paper being slid across the desk to him.
Looking down, thirteen found Nine's impeccable handwriting and the words "Do you think we'll meet the king when we're named?".
'Meet the King?' thirteen thought 'If we're to work for him then I would assume so?'
"Definitely" he wrote back. "We'll probably be guarding princesses and giving advice like the instructors do".
The two continued to pass a few more notes before realizing how hauntingly quiet the hall had become.
"Something funny about the death of King Reynolds III?" Instructor Piers asked in a voice of faux curiosity. "No? Then what ever could you be writing about on that piece of expensive paper you've defaced?"
*gulp**gulp* the two boys mirrored.
An hour later, the two found themselves in the kitchen with a very large, sweaty Boris breathing down their necks and berating them while they prepared forty meals with cane marks along their arms, necks, and backs.
--
As the week came to an end, it was once more sparring day. 'I've definitely improved a lot since I began refining my blood, I can feel my reactions becoming swifter and my stamina's definitely becoming a strong point. I wonder how I'd compare with the others now.'
According to the fundamental manual, the Blood Refinement stage would have the greatest impact on one's agility and health, but as Thirteen was a healing meta, the increase to both health and endurance still outshone his agility.
The use of unique arts was not yet allowed in sparring with peers, as not everyone had met their techniques requirements and not everyone was capable of controlling their arts enough to be safe. They were allowed to be used against helpers when training with them though.
'Sparring with wooden swords should be allowed from today, but I think I'll stick with my fists. I still haven't got used to using a sword.' Thirteen pondered as he sized up the other children, trying to put Nicholas' advice into practice and determine who was stronger or weaker than he. Most kept wooden swords close to them and seemed eager to use them. He knew that a few of the children had been practicing with other weapons in the dojo as their techniques required, but none had brought them to class.
'I really need to start visiting the dojo on my free days, but Blood Refinement is taking so long and if I don't meet the requirements for the Grand Life Tome soon, I may fall behind.'
Thirteens thoughts were interrupted as a heavy weight pressed down on his shoulders and back. "There you are! We've been looking for you."
It was Four, his arm wrapped leaning heavily on Thirteen's shoulder as Nine, Ten, and Forty-five soon gathered as well. "Hey Hey, did they tell you yet?" Ten asked with sparkling eyes.
"Tell me what?"
"Okay good! I spoke to Instructor Piers after Theory Hall about wanting to spar with my friends, and he said the dojo will be open for private sparring soon! He even said he'd ask Instructor Diores to do so earlier for me!"
Thirteen was amazed. "Are you sure? THAT Instructor Piers? The demon dwelling in the Theory Hall? HE is going to do you a favor?"
Ten cocked her head upward in an exaggeratedly prideful motion, obviously learned from Four and spoke through a smile "Of course, the Instructors actually like me, unlike you two who either space out or pass notes" Ten's eyes flicked from Thirteen to Nine and back again as she spoke.
"Hold on! I don't space out, that's him. And I already knew the basics of the kingdom, I actually visit the library on occasion." Nine defended.
As Four gave a low chuckle he whispered to them all to quiet down before Instructor Diores got mad.
Looking ahead, Thirteen saw the man getting ready to conduct class and quieted down.
Sparring days started as usual, with strength training, unarmed combat routines, and swordplay routines, but archery training and the sparring with Helpers were skipped in favor of Peer Spars.
As everyone was assigned partners, Thirteen was surprised to find Ten was his partner. This was a rather unnerving match up that left Thirteen conflicted. Ten was at the same time a girl, his friend, and shorter than others of her age, and all of these things made Thirteen not want to hit her. BUT. Thirteen had also seen her spar before, and was somewhat terrified at the thought that he would likely lose. She was a strength meta, and yet she was incredibly agile. He even had a feeling that her fists would hurt far more than those of Twenty-nine he had sparred with before.
'Thinking on it now… what are the chances that Instructor Piers arranged this just to get me beat up?'
Shaking distracting thoughts from his mind, he committed himself to the thought of victory. After all, it was both a matter of pride and self preservation at this point.
As the two bowed to each other, they introduced themselves as was customary.
"Thirteen, Healing."
"Ten, Strength"
And so they each took a stance. Neither drew a weapon as they each seemed to prefer to do this with their fists.
In the past week, Melia had beaten a lot more caution into thirteen. He began trying to disguise his intent with small hops and movements that couldn't quite be considered feints. Ten on the other hand, stared at him with a gaze more serious and determined than he had seen on her before, while slowly inching forward.
This standoff continued for a short while, until Ten was just a half step out of Thirteens preferred striking range, at which point he shot forward, a jab already inbound for ten's head. Ten reacted perfectly as if expecting the sudden assault, but Thirteen's jab never reached completion as he pulled his arm back immediately and twisted his body to the left, his right leg raised from the ground to deliver a roundhouse kick to the side of Ten's head.
With a solid thud, the kick hit Ten's hasty guard and Thirteen followed up, bringing his leg back, he stepped forward with his left foot, before twisting his body to the right and delivering a left hook.
His hit barely scraped the top of Ten's guard as she lowered her head and dashed past his striking range to deliver a palm to the gut.
Thirteen, without much time to respond, raised his left leg, blocking the palm with his shin as piercing pain soared through it. Immediately after, Thirteen found himself falling backwards towards the ground, hastily throwing his right hand toward the ground, he managed to catch himself and regain his footing somewhat clumsily.
Thirteen now was in a low stance as he eyed Ten, her guard up high and her left hand extended somewhat, not in a fist. 'Her fighting's changed. Where she used to punch at the head and use raw strength to blow past guards, she's now waiting patiently for opportunities.
Seeing her deadly serious eyes as she inched forward once more, Thirteen too brought his focus to its limit.
'This is going to be hard…' Thirteen confirmed, as his shin screamed in pain. He didn't know if there was another way he could have avoided that palm, but in this moment he was sure that using his shin was a mistake.
When they reengaged it was again Thirteen who took the offensive, testing her reactions with a noncommittal flick of his left leg, he tried to focus her attention downwards, on the idea that he might be preparing to kick, as he kept moving. All the while, he kept looking for a moment, just a moment, in which her eyes would lower.
Finally it came! As her attention was diverted, Thirteen closed the small distance between them and threw a right hook, which she avoided just like last time, ducking low.
'Perfect' Thirteen thought, as he steadied his balance on his left leg for a moment, –a choice he would regret as pain shot up through his leg– and brought his right knee towards Ten's face as he placed his hands on top of her head and guard.
Just as his knee made contact with her head, she turned to the side, taking it to the cheek, as she tucked her right arm close, and with a twist of her body, sent a short but powerful palm strike to Thirteen's torso, knocking him off his shaky balance, as the injured leg was unable to hold him.
'Shit!' Thirteen exclaimed in his mind, as a very similar scene surfaced from his memories.
Grabbing Ten by the clothes on her back he tried to toss her to the ground before he fell, only to receive another hit to the left ribs as he did. In the end, they both hit the ground, not knowing who had won.
Looking to each of their trainers for the result, Thirteen saw Merial smile at him.
"Thirteen's win" He heard the other helper say.
"Sigh..." Thirteen relaxed as a grin bloomed on his childish face. 'I did it. I gave it my all and I beat Ten, a strength meta! It's possible. I can do this.' Though as he let his thoughts wander to what a real fight with a strength meta would be like he soon lost some of that enthusiasm. 'Right now, spars end when someone hits the floor. If this were real and i got stuck on the ground with a strength meta...'
With a cold shiver, Thirteen shook the thought from his head and made to stand.
He meant to approach Ten and give her a hand up, but as soon as he put his weight on his left leg, a piercing pain made itself known with a bang! As thirteen found himself falling back to the ground.
Looking over to Ten, he could see a bruise on her cheek and tears sitting on her eyelids. 'Oh no. Did I go to far?' Before he had time to finish his thoughts, ten burst into a painful cackle of laughter, falling back to her side too.
Immediately Thirteen was relieved. 'Of course she's fine. You might need to worry about yourself' he thought ominously as he looked at his left shin. Rolling up his pant leg, Thirteen found a very large, very ugly bruise spanning most of his shin, and suspected he may have had a fracture.
…
'Sigh'
Getting back to his feet with the aid of Helper Melia, Thirteen knew he would have to sit out on his next match. He didn't know to what extent his healing attribute would help though.
Geschenke
-- Geschenk
erhalten Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein