Seed Of Speed

After being dismissed by Swordflash, Diego rushed back to his dorm room with excitement. Since he did not want to raise his cultivation, he took a seat on his bed and closed his eyes as he began to meditate. He reopened his eyes into the azure void of his mental plane where Katalina was in her teacher attire and the chalkboard floating behind her. His desk appeared as he sat down with his notebook.

::From your memories, I know you are familiar with the term chakras. The seven chakras represent the power cores for each of the magics. The Crown with where the power of a Mesmer is stored. The Third Eye houses your mana and allows you to see into the elemental world. The Throat is where your bardic abilities come from. The Heart belongs to the Enchantress and are always women. The Solar Plexus is unique in that it allows for the combination of the different energies within your body and creates the manifestations you saw Quicksand use. The Dantian holds your chi as you already know::

A sitting figure appeared on the board and Katalina pointed out the different chakras as she spoke.

::The last, the Root, belongs to a very unique type of person and is much a blessing as a curse. Once they unlock the Root chakra, they will open every other chakra instantly and are then compelled to 'create life' at the cost of their own. They have literally created worlds in that spark of divinity::

::What Swordflash is asking you to do is open your Solar Plexus Chakra by combining your chi and mana, but what you don't realize is, you already have! When you combine magic and your bardic power together to create your custom spell, you opened it then, or else you would have been unable to combine the two different energies. What you need to do now is to practice mixing chi and mana. Watch me::

Katalina's body took on a strange transparency as her figure turned to black except for an orange light at her navel and an azure light at her forehead. The blue light moved down while the orange slowly crept upward, so that they both reached the center of her c.h.e.s.t at the same time. The two lights began to swirl together then turn a sunny yellow color. She waved a hand and a violet rapier with a dragon and its wings creating the guard around her hand.

::The benefit of manifested weapons and armor is that they are perfectly suited to you to maximize your power to the extreme. They are truly an extension of your body and can change to suit your needs::

As she said that, she pointed out the sword and it curved left and right.

::The drawback is the major consumption of power. You will notice that the further out you extend the manifestation from your body, the rate of consumption will increase exponentially At your current level, if you donated every ounce of mana and chi, you can maintain a full set of armor and a spear for ten minutes, but in a true battle situation, you would need to stop it at the five minute mark or risk entering a weakened state. Of course, you can wear armor and carry a weapon with enchantments to ease the burden as Quicksand did::

"What are the limitations to it?" Diego asked.

::As long as you have the power to create it, the only limitation is your imagination::

"How should I start to create my armor?"

::You need to start gathering your prana which you can only do under your direct control and not in this meditative state. Once you get the hang of gathering it, practice forming difference shapes. It will take some time to get the hang of it before you will be able to make your armor::

"Alright! Thanks, Kat," Diego said, vanishing from the place.

Katalina was left shaking her head with a slight smile on her face as the mental world collapsed. Diego reopened his eyes in the real world and blinked before shutting his eyes once again. He tried to wrangle the two energy at the same time, but it proved to be much harder than he thought. Without his [Parallel Thinking] skill, he would not have been able to control both at the same time and have them meet in unison at the Solar Plexus Chakra, but just as he succeed, he felt a wave a dizziness hit him as he received a small blacklash from the instantaneous consumption of ten percent of his mana and chi. A small dollop of energy pricked in his c.h.e.s.t uncomfortably until he released it in the form of a cone of swirling violet and white material that had the smoothness of plastic.

::Not bad for a first attempt, but you lost more than eighty percent in mismanagement of the energies. You can iron out the faults with solid effort::

"Why was it violet and white? Quicksand was a rusty brown," Diego asked.

::The color is based on affinity, so your prefect Thunder and Light affinities overpower the others which would muddy up the color like most people's::

"Crap, is that going to reveal my affinities?"

::Practice, Diego. If you can change the shape for your manifestation, you can change the color. You put no control over that bit of energy::

"Oh," Diego chuckled as he scratched the back of his head.

He used [Speed Clone] and tossed the clone his ki'ta. His clone played Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Mood Rising" as he channeled {War Song} while his true body began to consolidate his prana. The two energies slowly melded together and were emptying out his reserves, but the power returned back just as fast thanks to his bardic power. The prana energy did not want to be contained within his body and he could not collect much before he had to use to manifest something.

This time, he focused on making the color black. The cone was twice the size as the first one, but he was successful in changing the color to black. He went back and forth from collecting prana and creating things with his manifestations. After awhile though, he grew tired of the constant switching and made another [Speed Clone].

A strange equilibrium happened once the third focused on creating while his true body gathered prana and the second clone replenished his reserves. Time lost all meaning as he entered a state of epiphany. All sorts of shapes from in between the hands of the third clone, taking advantage the enclosed area to create miniatures figures. It was only when the source of his bardic power ran dry did he finally awaken from his state to an alert in front of his eyes.

================================================================

Hidden Mission Complete!

- Develop a training method based off your [Speed Clone] skill.

- Extra rewards awarded for combining bardic abilities for unique benefits!

- [Heaven's Celestial Eye] cultivation manual, 250 skill points, 100 mastery points awarded

================================================================

"Cultivation manual? What is this?" Diego asked.

::A priceless reward. Now that you are ready to move into the Demi-Body Level, it is about you began cultivating your Third Eye properly. It takes a major strain on your body, but this is a personally crafted cultivation method that I became famous for. Once you are able to form your Crest, your mana will become purer and you will be able to hold much more than any average method you may receive through the sect::

"Thanks, Katalina," Diego said. "I think I understand how to use my power better now."

::Good, wait on activating the information about the manual and get some sleep. Your epiphany lasted ten hours and, although your body is much stronger than it used to be, you don't need to push yourself so hard. Rest, and in the morning you can create your Crest then we can talk about designing your armor::

Diego did not argue as a pulsing, tingling seemed to radiate from the center of his torso where the Solar Plexus Chakra rested. While it was not painful, it was not a comfortable feeling. He dismissed his clones and stretched out of his bed for a well-earned rest.