Chapter 220 - Breakthrough
What happened in Fort Frostmoth? This is an interesting story.
In the notes and scattered journals I found, there was a certain Necromancer who came here for the body of General Falx Carius, this necromancer wanted to resurrect the General by installing a Heart Stone into the body of the General, Tony Stark way. The Heart Stone indeed resurrected the General but it made him paranoid, suspicious and didn't listen to the Necromancer. In the end, the General forced the Necromancer out from the Fort and started amassing Ash Spawns as soldiers. One of the unique powers that the resurrection with Heart Stone's gives is the power to manipulate the Bones and the Ash, in other words Raising the Ash Spawns.
I am not sure how idiotic that necromancer was but to control a being with such power, I am sure that having a superior amount of the same power is the main factor here. This is basic knowledge as the Thrall can't be stronger than the Binder. This is why General Falx Carius contained a whole Heart Stone in his chest while his Ash Spawn minions only had a spick of power from the same source. The Necromancer here seemed to have tried to look to control the Heart's Energy with its regular Magicka, an idiotic move that only an amateur about Energies would commit, one need to converse their Magicka into a Heart Energy to give an order to a being like General Falx or use a tool with the Power of the Heart, like a Heart Stone!
I remember that in the game, one can Conjure a new being called 'Ash Guardian', which is basically an Ash Atronach, but the only requirement to control it is to use a Heart Stone.
All in all, to Control a being with the power of the Heart of Lorkhan, one needs to contain a higher amount of Heart Energy in themselves or use a tool with a higher amount of Heart Energy as well.
Basic theory but still… amazing!
The Heart Energy is a wild Energy because it is alive and seeks freedom, if one can understand both the nature of the Wild Energy and that it has a personality, one may be able to flay, tame, converse and harness it.
People before used many reckless methods and godly tools like the Tools of Kagrenac and here I am going to use Cultivation. The others used way to extract the energy with force exploit it regarding its attitude but the 'Cultivation' as its name suggests, is slow and patient. It is the hard way but clearly the sure one.
Even though my personal Cultivation Technique was flawed greatly, I was handed a gift from heaven to enhance it through today's encounter.
I stood up from the chair and turned around to General Falx's corpse, with the notes I just took and the Tome of the Acupoints in hand, I started doing a check on his body.
I was amazed by how fresh his corpse was, this body was dead for a long time but the Heart Stone restored its appearance to this shape.
You may argue that this is a perfect resurrection but I will stop you right here. General Falx turned into a psycho once he was resurrected (even he was a psycho before it) and the body has no vital functions. So to say, the heart was replaced with a Heart Stone so the body instantly became inactive for a real resurrection (if there is any) and the Heart Stone influenced the corpse the same way it influenced the Ash Spawns and put back a creature suiting its new environment which in that case was something close in looks to a human and possessed the same memories. The important point about the technique that the Core in that human is different which makes it a different being than any zombie or incarnation. It is immoral and just wrong.
Still, I benefited greatly.
I followed the Acupoints and the Energy Channels that had some residual Heart Energy and managed to get a clear drawing for these channels and the points they pass on.
What will I call from now on the 'Energy Input/Output Channels', or the 'Meridians' like how they were mentioned in my past life's fictions, are twelve energy channels that contain the residual Heart Energy and are used to transfer the Magicka, the Life Force and the Spirit Force in and out of the body. These channels pass through the Acupoints which number can reach 361.
With all these information from the book and the body combined, I started drawing a new picture for the necessary Acupoints I need to Cultivate my Magicka through. I don't know how many time passed but I reached 64 Acupoints that has the ability to circulate, restore, exert and release the all kinds of energies in the Soul. These were the Acupoints that held the most important significance in Cultivation.
And now, for the moment of the truth.
I dispelled all the Magics I activated and depleted half of my Magicka then followed the drawing I made bit by bit and traced all the Meridians and Acupoints I am going to use. Just like a child who was walking for the first time, I started memorizing each step and how to not off balance while training. It was hard to define from where should I start but with trial and error, I felt like it was easier in some certain points than the other. I picked the easiest Acupoint and directed the Magicka slowly towards it, following the Meridians I reached the other but I hardly got any harmonious response like the first, it felt like it was blocked but I bypassed it to the next.
It was hard, losing focus was a big no no. It felt like that it will all go away if I was interrupted…
'Oops! My thoughts started straying away! I had to go back to focus once again. Calm your heart and continue.'
It kept going, most of the Acupoints were hard to go through and others were easy. It was like there were 22 points from 64 that can be accessed while the rest were blocked. It would be safe to assume that these are Acupoints that need to be unlocked somehow.
With that In mind, I decided to put all my focus on the second round and passed the energy right away through the Blocked Acupoints, some of these Meridians were hard to go through and most of their Acupoints were blacked so I started to adjust the path once again and kept going through the second round till its end.
The third, no adjustment was added but the speed started to increase.
The fourth was the same.
The fifth was better.
The Sixth started giving me a feeling that I am faster than I should be, if I lost control then I may be like the car that crashed because it was fast at a sharp turn. I put more control on the speed and kept going once again,
The seventh… I think I did this round with perfect speed and accuracy.
The eighth… I may have got proud and lost focus. Damn this is hard!
The ninth, back to normal.
The tenth, my body started sweating.
After the tenth, many changes started to be visible, I was following the path of the Meridians blindly just now only got through it with best of my imagination but I started to feel the new bath in my body as if I have grown some new organ and could see with it inside myself.
I could even feel a new swirl of energy near to my abdomen that was rather strange but it rhymed perfectly with my training.
This is… my Magicka Pool! Should I call it the Elixir Field? Nope, sounds otaku… Magicka Pool is good.
Ignoring all the weird ideas, I put all my heart into the training and decided to see how far can I go.
Some time passed and my body started heating up a bit, I could feel that the Magicka I drained from myself before the training has all returned a long time ago in an instant. My body also started sweating like crazy, my inside, however, felt the cold sensation of healing right after I passed a certain threshold. I cut the training right away and opened eyes.
"The hell! Why do I feel like my body is getting healed?"
I am not sure what happened but I will make a full body check right away.
'System, star…'
"Jon, are you okay?" Alina's voice interrupted what I was about to do.
"Yes, I am fine… where is everyone?"
"What do you mean fine? You kept your eyes shut for such a long time and sweated a ton!"
"I am fine, really. You can check me yourself."
She looked at me up and down and gave a sigh.
"What in the name of Kyne was that just now?" She asked with a worried face, she even removed her eye mask and looked directly at me.
"What are you talking about? The training?"
"Training? Didn't you feel what was going around you?" She said and pointed at the floor.
I followed what she pointed at and noticed a strange pattern of Ash on the ground, it was like the ripple caused by a drop falling in water and I was at its center.
"Each now and then, some force wave would come out of your body. You almost shocked me senseless."
Force wave?
I checked the ash patterns on the ground and detected 7 circles around me.
"Never felt a thing? How long did this all take?"
"Dammit, Jon! You stayed motionless for almost eight hours!" Alina held her forehead and showed a tired expression.
"EIGHT HOURS?"
The hell!
"You didn't feel time at all?"
"It only… I thought one hour was all that is I took… Damn!"
I took me a while to put my thoughts straight once again!
"Where are the others?"
"Sigh! Some went to the pier of the fort, the ship arrived and Wulfur is healing the injured Troopers. Jull went back to Raven Rock to with Bjorna to inform them that 'We stumbled upon a large number of Ash Spawns and started killing them' as you said."
"I see."
I stood up and dusted myself off. However, I spaced out for a bit and started sensing the Magicka once again.
"What's going on this time? Are you fine?"
"Yes, I am feeling like… wait a minute."
'System, full body check!'
<Condition: Perfect!>
'Good, no Astral Damage!… then Status!'
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● States ●
Name: Jon Dare
Race: Human (Nord)
States:-
◇ Vitality: 716
◇ Magicka: 1242
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It increased!
Eight hours of training boosted me up by 22 Magicka Points and 6 Vitality Points? All that with no Astral Damage? Crazy!
This is getting exciting!
I evoked my Magicka on my palms once again and tested one last thing.
In fast casting speed, I disappeared from where I stood and appeared on the other side across the room. The casting speed was… perfect!
'Teleport' is an 'Expert Level' spell and I used it with some effort this morning… to use it with no effort just now only means...
Since the time I left Riften, I was an Adept Level Mage with a lot of Magicka to spare but now…
I can learn the new spells I have shelved all that time...
I am an Expert Mage!