Billy found himself being pushed to the side by Trevor.
The man knelt by Su Li’s side and started CPR. Billy’s heart beat wildly along with each compression. And then a little cough came from her lips along with a bubble of water.
Trevor put her in a recovery position. Su Li coughed up a surprising amount of water.
But she was alive.
Billy turned to see that the yuren were all dead now. He checked his party interface. Su Li’s health was just above zero, but the rest were not badly injured.
“Thanks,” he said to Trevor.
Trevor just nodded and sat back. They all took the chance to eat and drink.
Eventually, Su Li sat up.
“Well, that was something I don’t want to repeat,” she said.
They all smiled a little. Billy realized just what it would be like once the tutorial was over and death would be around every corner.
“Just relax,” he said to Su Li. “Let us know when you are ready to continue.”
Su Li nodded. He could see the pain on her face still. Memories could be debilitating.
He decided to try meditating himself to top up his stamina. He wanted to be completely ready for the next part.
He slipped into his meditation trance easily, even with his concerns and worries. As he meditated, he focused inwards. Usually, he tried to sense what was happening outside of his body. This time, he looked inside. What had happened to his meridians? Why was his internal mana so messed up? He had already had ideas of things he could possibly try using his control of external mana but he doubted his ability to pull that off in a battle without a significant amount of practice.
He could sense there was mana trying to flow within his body – mostly air, some fire, and what felt like void mana. There were other types too but he was not so easily able to differentiate between those. He was sure that if he had a better grasp water would be predominant. He wondered if that changed as his affinity to the other mana types increased. Were they actually becoming a different species? Would he still need food and water after they had evolved a few more times?
He pushed away the extraneous thoughts. He needed to focus. He narrowed down on the air mana. He could see it flowing around his lungs and some then travelled around his body in his blood, but there was no flow through his meridians. He narrowed down on one of the meridians. There, his senses failed him. It felt like trying to see something in turbulent water. It felt chaotic – like the mana was fighting against the channels.
When he had found out his meridians were damaged, he had not expected this. Despite the warnings from Mia, his SAPIA, he could not leave it alone. He wanted to heal himself. He had learned body cleansing by himself. How difficult could this be?
He just wanted to make a small change. He focused on that one spot in his meridian and willed it to calm down. He wasn’t sure exactly what feeling it should be, so he focused on one of harmonic cooperation. A stir happened. The mana appeared to be settling down. He could sense some elements of void mana. He tried to influence those towards being a basic guide for the air mana.
Pain fired through his body, and he gasped out loud. His meditation trance shattered.
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Billy shook his head. His brain felt fried.
“Hello, Billy,” Mia said. “You have been experimenting again. You have caused 5% more damage to your meridians.”
“Damn,” Billy said. “It appeared to be working.”
“It was, but think of it as patching one piece of water pipe with holes in every section. Once that portion of the pipe is repaired, the pressure on the other pieces increases. In this case, that caused further damage.”
“So, I will now need to wait longer to heal the damage.”
“If you let it happen naturally. However, you are heading along the right track to repairing the healing yourself. It will still take time, but it is possible to heal more quickly. The right choices for your evolved skills will help.”
“Can you explain the options to me?”
“I am sorry. I am unable to comply. Mia is not able to assist with advanced skill choices.”
Billy smiled ruefully to himself. That would have been too easy.
“What did you do?” Lorna demanded.
Billy looked up to see that everyone was looking at him.
“I messed up sort of,” he replied. “My meridians were damaged before, and I tried to heal them.”
“Your meridians were damaged, and you did not tell anyone?”
Billy shrugged. “I didn’t want people to worry.”
Lorna just shook her head and turned away.
“On a bright point, I have learned that when your skills reach level five, you have the option to evolve them.”
“Oh, I knew that,” Trevor said. “My identify plant skill reached level five earlier.”
“And you didn’t tell anyone?” Billy said.
“Your meridians were damaged how long ago?” Trevor replied. “And it only just happened.”
“So what did you choose, Trevor?” Yuki asked.
“I haven’t chosen yet. My SAPIA said that there was not time limit so I wanted to wait until I had time to think about.”
“What are your options?” Yuki looked very excited.
“Well, I have three options. I was told that is standard. 1) Botanical insight. 2) Alchemical insight. 3) Toxicological Expertise. I believe the first is focused on learning the properties of the plant, things like that will help to grow the plant. The second seems obvious. And the third is probably about identifying poisons from plant,s but may extend to animal poisons too.”
“We all know which one you want to take,” Lorna said.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” She looked at him and he blushed.
“I thought it could be useful to have the first to help grow plants, but the second is more appealing. Just think healing potions.”
“Then choose it,” Billy said. “I doubt we are going to be growing crops anytime soon.”
Trevor nodded and closed his eyes.
“What about you, Billy? What choices did you get?” Su Li asked.
Billy explained his options. He did not mention his new skill as he had no idea what that was yet.
“What do you think is the difference between mana sense and mana perception is?” Yuki asked.
“I am guessing it is the difference between hearing a noise and understanding what the noise is,” Trevor said.
“I’m not so sure,” Su Li said. “I feel perception is more like being able to quantify and identify mana and possibly divine its uses.”
Billy felt that Su Li had the right idea.
“I think mana synesthesia would be more of a passive skill, sensing mana with all the senses,” he mused out loud.
“So what choices are you making?” Su Li demanded.
He was happy that she had returned a little to her usual self.
“I was going to go with battle meditation, but thinking more deeply about it I will choose healing meditation. It could help with my meridians. And healing is also useful.”
“And?”
“And mana synesthesia. I have already found mana sense useful in battle. This will hopefully help make it more instinctive.”
He made the choices.
“Hello, Billy,” Mia said. “You have evolved your skills, I can now tell you more. Mana synesthesia - perceive mana through multiple senses (e.g., hearing spells, smelling magical residues). This is a passive skill and can be evolved when it has reached level ten. Healing meditation – heal your body, soul, and spirit through the power of meditation. This is an active skill and can be evolved when it has reached level ten.”
“You said something about making the right choices might help me with my meridians.”
“Indeed. Healing meditation can speed up the healing process of not just physical injuries. Mana perception might have been more useful, but mana synesthesia will also be beneficial to the process you began.”
“What about void healing? And what are void meridians?”
“Void healing - a rare form of mana use that mends damage by harnessing the power of negation. It must be used carefully. And it has a cost. In this case you converted part of your meridians to void meridians.”
“What the hell are void meridians?”
“Void Meridians are pathways that channel void energy. You have to be careful. Even a full void magician would only convert one of his meridians this way. There are severe stability issues. They also negate the flow of other mana types.
“Crap. Thanks Mia. Can it help with healing my meridians?”
“That depends on your desired path. Your current void meridian conversion will revert if not supported. Put if you take a meridian too far, you need to be determined to take it all the way. And you would only be able to do this to a single meridian without running the risk of corrupting or destabilizing yourself.”
“Destabilising? Sounds nasty.”
“Think goo monster. Or worse. There are creatures called abyssal fiends who were normal demonic beings corrupted by void mana. All they want to do is to consume.”
Billy realized he had some serious thinking to do. His aetheric defiance class certainly was not straightforward.
But for now, they had a dungeon to complete. He roused the others. It was time to open door number one.
What option would you choose?