Chương 62: White light

Blick sat on top of a rick pile watching the line of slaves crest a hill in the distance. He didn't know where they were headed, but he had a deep feeling of pride in his role in helping those humans. Seeing them in peril hadn't sparked any kind of sympathy, but watching Butler face his fears and risk his life for others had inspired Blick to step into a role he hadn't considered. He followed another persons plan for the first time. He didn't know any of those men and women, yet he was happy they were free.

It was a new sensation. He sat on his rock pile as the bird flew lazily overhead enjoying its freedom from the tunnels. After a while he closed his eyes and focused inside his core to the six drops sitting dormant. He pushed the extra drop out in the same manner as before, and was surprised to feel much less of the burning pain. When it reached his heart it made him shudder with discomfort but it didn't knock him out this time. Maybe that was proof of the progress?

After the drop had dispersed and the discomfort faded he realized he could feel his heartbeat through his body. That was definitely confirmation the process was strengthening him. Blick settled back into position and started spinning his drops in a steady spiral towards the center. The theory only required two drops to collide to create a cascading burst of solid mana inside the core. That would swallow any other drops currently inside the core creating the foundational layer of a persons solid core.

The theory was a pain in the ass. Blick spun the drops as fast as he could while maintaining their spacing. For what seemed like hours. Well into the practice he had a small idea. Curiosity pushed him to try another rotation. Would it be easier to make the drops collide past their resistance if they spun in a counter direction. He left a single drop in the center. He focused on two drops and got them equal distance before spinning them to the left.

Then he focused on holding that slow rhythm while slowly starting up another two drops that he tried to spin to the right. It absolutely was not working. As soon as one drop was in front of another they both repelled each other so forcefully the whole pattern would grind to a halt. He sat looking into the darkening sky trying to figure out what trick the porcelain map maker knew that would allow a five drop solid layer. He opened up the map for the first time since he and the two elites made copies.

Staring at the spiral of dots connected by lines he thought of the inside of his core. The visual depiction of a spiral open in front of him let him imagine other possibilities.

"Does it have to be left or right? Can I spin them up or down or even diagonally?" He mumbled to himself. Then he made a mental model and imagined the drops spinning in multiple patterns crossing each other's paths. His eyes flew open and he rolled the map back up to focus on his core. With strain on his furry grey face he pushed two drops into a steady spin to the left like normal. Then he added a drop rotating in a diagonal pattern just to the right and up. The last drop he added diagonal pattern left and down.

This was so slow. Managing to move three directions at a single time was very difficult. The drops would still ouch away from one another and bounce around while he tried to keep them off the cores edge. His last idea was to make all four drops move in their own path. The going diagonally left would counter the one going diagonally right, while the one going left would counter the one going up. The drops moved slow at first as he mentally struggled to keep a rhythm. He numbered the drops in his mind.

One up, two left, three up right, four up left. He spun and spun for what felt like forever before one drop pushed just far enough out of its collision course with another and right into the path of a third. Drop three collided with drop four and a light shown so bright that Blick had to open his eyes to confirm it wasn't his imagination. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The cultivators from the slave camp finally broke through the escape tunnels and out into the meadows above after dark. The chaos of the tunnels had meant the leadership of the guard unit couldn't get a good grasp of what had made everyone leave the mines without their slaves in tow. Let alone how the men had fled as if they were escaping hell. By the time the two cultivators were brought up to speed and armed themselves to enter the tunnel, they had assumed the slaves had all been killed by this tunnel beast.

If it could take out a solid layer man so quickly then it would clear a path of carnage through the weak slaves. Not a single slave had made it out in the hours since the chaos began. They expected bodies and a mess. All they found was one single body. Refusing to separate in the dark tunnels they spent another hour sprinting through the tunnels in search of any sign of the miners. What they eventually came across was a pile of empty crystals and a crate near what looked like a tunnel collapse.

Lucky them there was a whole pile of picks nearby. Breaking through the wall they realized this was one of the old mine tunnels and they quickly followed it to an exit. By the time they left the tunnel the sun had fallen and the moon was low. They stood atop the tunnels entrance and looked in every direction. There was no good way to track through the plains in the dark. They had done this for enough years to know that simple fact.

The slaves that had escaped would inevitably leave a path they could easily follow tomorrow. They nearly decided to go back to the compound for the night when they saw a white flash from the top of a rock pile a few miles away. Had it been day time they wouldn't have noticed. Had the flash been blue they wouldn't have cared.

"White flash, solid layer." The deep voice let out before sighing.

"That should make at least two solid layer fighters. No way someone under that layer killed Tom." The other man replied, "Someone sent a team to steal our slaves. We should head back and tell the boss. I don't fancy walking into an ambush without knowing which house is making moves." The man with the deep voice confirmed his agreement with a huff before they both turned back towards the tunnels and returned to the compound in search of a message scroll to the capital.

Blicks heart was racing. As was his mind. He could feel so much strength with his reinforced grip he could crush the rocks between his hands. This was insane to think about. He had taken several hits from that human with this power? Was the man just really bad at reinforcement? Or was Blicks body naturally stronger? Or had the drops he had absorbed changed his body enough that he wasn't even aware how durable he was. Now that he had the power of a solid layer he wanted to sleep before experimenting tomorrow.

He looked over to the bird for a bit before he told it "Come here let's see if you can use this mana too." The bird was resting nearby and Blick stood and walked over to it holding his hand out. He pushed his dense mana through his opened meridians and into the bird with strength and growth on his mind. He remembered he had some control over the mana that left his body and he used that to direct the mana towards the birds muscles and bones. It lasted a minute or two before the bird squawked and hoped away from him.

"You ok?" He asked as he slowly approached the bird and it squawked again before hopping into his arms and tucking its head in like it wanted to sleep.

"Hehe alright little guy. We can go to bed. It's been a long day." He looked off into the start sky holding his overgrown bird in his arms on top of a pile of rocks in a grassy plain.

"We should go find something beautiful soon."