Aimless Ascension

"The guards would kill you, just on learning you can grasp Qi. Now tell me, how do you want to practise?"

Well, she had a point. Besides, she suggested it was the best way to develop mental fortitude, i supposed, this was the right training to adopt in these circumstances.

"Fine," I said, resigning, "I'll be in your care."

"Well," Saarya said with a smile, probably enjoying every moment of my stress. "It won't be that bad. I will block a significant portion of the psychological pain from affecting you so that you can have the right amount of training before you can proceed to the next thing."

That calmed me a lot, although I was wrong after we proceeded to the training. Well, it couldn't be called training, not after what I experienced. Even though Saarya assisted, touching my forehead and somehow blocking a significant part of the piercing pain, I barely managed to hold on for five minutes.

That was my limit currently. If you understand the pain, you'd understand that. The pain simply didn't go away after doing its damage. It accumulated on my nerves as I hold on to the power.

"About five minutes," Saarya said as I groaned on the rocky ground. "You did better than I hoped, but I guess this is the end for today."

Saarya was about to leave in the night, but opening the door, she turned her head to look at me.

"Also, don't force yourself too much. A practitioner's mind is the most delicate territory. Many things could go wrong without the right treatment of it. Simply refrain from practising anymore, it might break your mind. Since we barely started, you wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Ugh," I answered with a half-groan. Honestly, I barely managed to hear anything, something about not overdoing it.

Well, she should be rest assured, I barely have the power to do it again.

***

A week passed, and I could hold on to the energy for ten whole minutes now. Saarya came into my room almost every night to help me practice. She was more reliable than she expressed herself to be. I would have even enjoyed a girl's company pretty as hers, but with the training, I could barely act rigidly.

Even though I already doubled my mental fortitude, I wasn't any bit more satisfied. This was simply putting myself through excruciating mental pain, without knowing what I would get at the end of it.

Those rough lashes were for certain if I failed, that's for sure. After our quota increased by another portion, I missed one day after overdoing it after Saarya left. It left me sprawling on the ground, incapable of even keeping the thought process intact for a certain amount of time.

Thankfully, Saarya hadn't found out, though I knew she suspected something, but something else on her mind stopped her from yelling at me.

Well, there was another thing that was on my mind for the last couple of days. Other than Saarya, the elderly doctor was helping me every day as well, letting me absorb most of his energy to complete the mark on my wrist.

As they had thought, the mark had been growing in my palm. It wasn't a simple thin spiral mark anymore, but it was a thick mark that others could notice from a distance away. Well, I wrapped it with some clothes just in case others take an interest in it as well.

I only want the right people to take interest in it, which included Saarya, but the Highlady mostly ignored the mark even when I flashed it before her eyes. She barely grew contemplative with that.

Well, that was until today.

"Looks like you're not that far away from your first manifestation of fate mark," Saarya said, making my heart race. "Hmm, this is going to be tricky."

"Really? Why?"

"Why do you suppose?" She asked.

"The collar," I answered, pointing to the collar latched onto my neck.

Saarya shook her head. "It suppresses you from using the fate mark's power, but that was it. The problem is you yourself." Saarya thought for a moment to give a better explanation. "Spirit arts are vast. However, there are a few simple rules to it. For starters, a fate lock can't manifest in a practitioner's body until he reaches Copper. Not naturally."

"Copper?"

"The first step of spirit arts."

I narrowed my eyes. Through her tone, I could easily detect, I was far from hitting the mark. However, the reality was dimmer than I hoped.

"It takes a copper to use even a minor power of the fate mark. Sadly, you barely made it to initiate," Saarya said. "Well, I couldn't put all the blame onto you, the circumstances being as it is. Looks like we have to change your ways of practising now."

My eyes gleamed as I heard her. "You mean," I asked, unable to contain the hope from shining in my eyes, "you'll break the restriction on the collar."

Saarya arched an eyebrow and sighed. "I would still like to keep you at it for a couple more weeks, but with the circumstances as it is, you can't waste any more time."

"Yeahhh!" I lunged into the air as a celebratory gesture. Well, the gesture wasn't the right term, as it was something between a gesture and a celebratory move.

"Please, don't make me question my decisions," Saarya said, groaning.

She probably wasn't aware, but I wasn't simply celebrating because I could grasp the Qi without restriction. There was a significant part of me delighted to no end after learning the excruciating mental pain would end today.

"So, are you going to do that now?"

"Today, but before that, you need to grasp another thing about spirit arts." Saarya knew best how to dampen my mood. "Also, don't expect me to break the restriction in one go. I haven't done it in ages, and my power dwindled more than what I would like to admit."

________

Check out the new book: Apotheosis Online: Birth of the Virtuous Sinner

Found a new way to be more productive, (Writing during my day job). Hopefully, I'll be able to update the two books together.