Chương 20: Mission launch

"In our society there are classes of people. Mostly being divided based on their position at birth or their role in society. We have a working class, a serf class, and a noble class. Roughly outlined there is very little movement between these sections as the education for each is vastly different. While there are examples of serfs making the leap to nobility, it is wildly rare and comes with a variety of struggles.

Mostly being outclassed in cultivation due to lack of education and resources, the lower class finds gaining respect and trust from the nobles exceedingly difficult. Being outside our usual framework you can expect to be judged entirely based on your cultivation level and ability. With this being the case it is important that you focus on condensing a drop. To do this you must first pull in as much mana as fast as you can. The wider your meridians, the more you can funnel in.

When you have reached your capacity and you feel that pressure in your chest you must squeeze. The tighter you managed to squeeze and the longer you hold the squeeze the better. You can think of it like packing a ball of dirt. Pack a little, then add another layer and pack a bit more. The more layers and the more pressure per layer, the more dense your mana becomes until it forms a drop.

Then the process is repeated several hundred times until that liquid fills your core and you condense it into a solid layer with a similar systematic approach. For the average person they may achieve a single drop in their lifetime. For nobles it's more often several drops to a full liquid core. Very few get a solid core condensation and even those are not extra dense. There are stories of nearly godlike beings who condensed every layer as tight as possible and hold a fully condensed solid core.

We can only speculate their ability as we have not seen any person of that level in our kingdoms history. Ultimately the amount of mana you have access to, and the amount of effort per layer will determine your progress" —— lecture from Master Collin to the strange new student at the Crater kingdom academy for nobles Circulating my mana while walking was probably the hardest trick I had thought about so far. Pushing my meridians open seemed to be the most important piece of this new puzzle.

I didn't understand why exactly everyone only worked on it in small sets of sitting down. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to do it all the time? It's probably less effective but if you do something all the time you definitely get good at it. My experience helping flowers grow showed practice showed the best results.

Some of the soldiers would give me strange looks as I missed a step every now and then. It's probably just too difficult for people to figure out so they assume it's not possible. According to the captain of this mission we will be walking for about six months with a couple days of break every five. Most of the people here know each other and have loads to talk about. They have games they play with cards and coins. A couple throw a stick around while we travel.

I'm assuming in some form of catching game as people cheer when one barely misses and the stick hits the ground. I am alone. Alone while surrounded by people. It's very strange. Even the last trip I took was not near this many people. The tents are much bigger and there are five cooks with their own wagon and tent. I had never planned anything like this so I assume it would make sense to send more people if we are going farther.

Nobody seems the least bit worried about attracting predators, and I suppose with this many weapons and fighters they wouldn't be under much threat. Assuming my own safety within the heard of people I focus almost entirely on circulating while walking. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Any update on our guide?" Captain Fitz was curious. They didn't really need the thing following them in his opinion, but the Lord insisted it could help especially if they needed to secure the other side of the gate. It would be beneficial to have a local on our side if they needed to negotiate. From his understanding the other side of the gate was a harsh jungle environment with more violent animals, but he couldn't really understand the need for so much manpower.

"None sir, he stays among the soldiers and follows without incident. Early reports had him stumbling a lot with the worry that he couldn't physically keep our pace, but it seems he has been keeping to himself and cultivating every free moment. Talk in the camp is he is likely trying to play catch up because he lacked any education prior to finding us. His not having a real job in the camp probably deters him from making any real friendships.

The worst complaints involved him asking what things were called every now and then."

"That's good news, I was concerned that after we left the city he would get antsy or more hostile. Have someone go assist him with weapons training or something. Someone we can trust to keep us informed. Remind him to be on the lookout for any form of communication scrolls. The last thing I need is a surprise spy or a trap planned from inside my own formation."

"Boss said you could use some help with weapons training. Have you used any mana reinforcements while fighting yet?" Blick tilted his head at the random man that walked up and started talking to him without even an introduction. Assuming this was just a unique trait of this man instead of the more potentially hostile approach, Blick responds.

"Help is good. Blick does not know …re in force?"

"Ah right ok that's what we can work on then. Names Artemis, been with this particular company for a few years and sometimes they ask me to train the slackers. Guess that's you this go round. Now let's do a few punches and I'll show you how this works." As Blick sets his stance and begins throwing punches Artemis explains, "Alright now you're gana want to push some, not a lot, of mana into the muscles that are extending your arm. The mana gets absorbed as soon as it contacts the muscle like a shot of energy.

Much like a shot of whiskey it has a strong kick but wears off fast. Take it slow on the first few tries. Too much mana will cause tears in the muscles and wear you out faster in a real fight. With so much concentration Blick scrunches his eyebrow, not just at the explanation given, but also at thick accent this person has. For the first time in this trip he met someone who used the same words but sounded different. It made some words hard to understand.

The new guy must have misread his concentration as not understanding the language, because he tried to explain louder and slower. That just made Blick chuckle his deep grunting laugh, before showing the man his best effort. slowly tapping some mana to spread through his arm he focused on the extension itself first, and then made sure to focus on the wrist as it had a tendency to bend under pressure. Being successful on the second try was clearly impressive for the trainer as his eyes went wide.

With a big smile he told Blick, "all be.. go grab your stick there and I'll show ya some more complicated swings with mans reinforcement." Weapons made the whole thing so much harder. You didn't swing with just your arms. Power through the legs and core detentions foundational strength while the arms and hands determine direction and angle. Much more difficult to think about when your practicing placing small packs of mana into the right muscle at the right time. It took all day to get even half a swing empowered.

And Blick smiled at the new challenge. Nobody yet realized he was circulating all day.