[The Twining] 11. Aquatic Acclimation (Patreon)

Isen honed himself against the monsters in the radiant fathoms, cycling the ambient energy between forays. Ros stood sentinel on the rock, prepared to descend if necessary. While Isen returned with injuries every time, Ros’s intervention was never required.

After the third day, Ros seemed confident in Isen’s ability to keep himself alive and went off on its own, venturing far deeper into the lake. Isen was unconcerned for his guardian. Even with the terrain disadvantage, Ros was at the peak of the core consolidation stage. Ros could annihilate Isen any day of the week, to say nothing of the tier one and two monsters in the area.

Isen had only seen a handful of monsters at the third tier, all of them in the mid to low level of advancement. Ros could wipe the floor with them.

With Ros gone, Isen considered going into the water as originally planned, but stayed back. Today, he wanted to try something new. Ever since Ros had mentioned it, the idea had tickled at the back of his mind.

He wanted to attempt external energy manipulation. Real external energy manipulation, since he didn’t count using the mist to conceal himself. That was an exercise in athleticism, moving his body in specific ways while tugging on the mist and breathing carefully. It was almost like dancing.

The external manipulation he envisioned was more akin to what mages did—shaping magic and performing spells. Isen had never seen spells in person, but he could imagine it from the stories. With a few words and the gesture of a hand, an earth mage could raise a pillar from the earth. A water mage could divert flood waters to barren fields.

If cultivation could accomplish something like that, Isen would never stop trying. It sounded… awesome.

Isen had manipulated energy beyond himself only once before, after the fight against the sanctum’s bear monster. Ros had been unconscious, barely breathing, and Isen had acted out of desperation, gathering the energy between his hands and funneling it into the beast’s mouth.

He wasn’t even sure what he’d done. It had felt like he’d been cycling the energy directly in his hands, rather than passing it through his core first, which wasn’t supposed to be possible given his understanding of cultivation. Admittedly, the energy hadn’t been very useful—he hadn’t really refined it. He’d just wanted to force energy into Ros’s body.

He'd never mentioned any of this to Ros. At this point, Isen trusted the beast, but back then, he’d only known Ros a few days. He hadn’t shared more than was necessary, and when he finally did feel like broaching the subject, he couldn’t reproduce the feat, so it was a moot point.

But after reaching the hollow ring stage, he’d acquired a greater awareness of his core and meridians. They felt more material to the point that if he cut himself open, he wouldn’t be surprised to see them embedded in his flesh, even if he knew they were purely metaphysical.

He could feel the meridians in his hands, thin like veins, with five tributaries extending from his wrists to his fingertips.

In his perception, they felt stiffer than his real veins. They almost reminded him of thin, hammered metal. When he pressed his fingers together and cycled the ambient energy, he could almost feel a sort of… resonance between the meridians.

Going on instinct, he formed his fingers into a circle, pointer fingers and thumbs together. A ring. He cycled, but rather than sending the refined energy uniformly through his body, he directed it toward his hands. It was difficult since the energy wanted to flow unrestrained. He definitely couldn’t do this in combat, but while meditating?

It was achievable.

The energy built up in his hands. Isen grimaced as it buzzed, searching for an outlet. It wanted to complete a circuit through his body.

He failed the first few attempts, the energy breaking free of his control. But Isen was persistent. He knew what he was trying was possible. He could taste it.

And finally, he was rewarded for his efforts. He felt the energy leap between his fingers. Pressed together, that meant the energy only passed through the skin of his fingertips, but he knew that would only be the beginning.

Then he practiced moving his fingers apart. Slowly. Letting the energy coalesce and leap like a spark of lightning between the digits. Then letting it crackle between more fingers.

The energy itself was impotent. It looked pretty, sparking between his hands, but it lacked substance.

Isen stood up and took a break, cycling as he walked, his steps slow. When he was at the peak of the overlook, he breathed deeply, then held out his hands. Between his fingers, the energy crackled. He let the energy build, leaping from thumb to thumb, pointer to pointer, and so on in a circle. He imagined a corkscrew of energy.

The mist responded. It drifted between his hands, swirling like motes of dust.

The technique broke and Isen stared at the water below, panting. He could feel his meridians protesting at the overload of energy.

He inspected his hands. He could send energy between them to manipulate the mist, but it really wasn’t too different from what he did when he concealed himself. Just more inefficient than tugging at the mist directly with his tempered body.

He resigned himself to ask Ros for advice later. Even if it claimed that monsters didn’t use external manipulation like humans, the beast might have insights to share.

***

Ros just stared at Isen as he demonstrated his new technique. The boy was reserved when it came to demonstrating his progress in cultivation. When he did decide to share something, Ros knew it would be worth paying attention.

This time was no exception.

“Child,” Ros said quietly, “you learned this in an afternoon?”

Isen snorted. “You know I learn quickly. It’s my sixth sense.”

Ros considered how to respond. “Your sixth sense tells you which way to go, but you must be the one to tread the path. It guides, but you must follow.”

The boy shrugged. “I suppose.”

“You follow very well, Isen. I think your ability to learn is intrinsic, unrelated to your sixth sense.”

The boy shifted and he averted his gaze to the lake below.

Ros sighed quietly. “You have the right intuition, boy, but you lack vision—intent. Watch closely.”

Isen’s gaze snapped up, his brow furrowed in concentration. Nodding, Ros opened its mouth. It concentrated energy into its mouth and recreated Isen’s technique, the ambient energy swirling over its tongue. Isen’s eyes widened slightly.

Ros stimulated its core. The sphere thrummed like a second heart and energy raced to its mouth. Rather than letting the energy flow freely through the meridians in its mouth, Ros focused his intent. It wasn’t good at shaping, but it could at least form an orb of pulsing energy between its teeth. The ball of energy pulsed. Ros pointed its head upwards and released the orb. It rocketed forward in a spiral of wind, naturally dissipating before it reached the ceiling over two hundred feet above even the overlook.

Ros chuffed with satisfaction at the boy’s dumbstruck expression.

“You can do magic?” he asked.

“Hardly,” Ros said. “Doing something like that takes all my focus. It is impractical for combat.”

“But… you could attack something out of reach,” Isen insisted.

“Like what, the bats?” Ros swished its tail. “The energy ball loses its power soon after leaving my mouth, becoming unstable. I’d be better off striking with my tail.”

Isen looked sullen.

“Beasts aren’t suited to shaping energy externally,” Ros reminded him. “This is all I can do even at the peak of the third tier. Don’t let my inadequacy deter you. Try to produce an energy ball of your own. Focus not on the energy itself, but on using the energy to shape the world to produce an effect.”

“Okay. Thanks Ros.”

The beast grunted, then watched the boy as he closed his eyes and cycled. When it had first met Isen, it had thought the boy a seeker, though quickly amended the assumption. For a while longer, it had considered Isen’s rapid growth the boon of a single powerful gift. It had been clear that Isen thought as much.

It had also moved on from that theory months ago. For a time it had even wondered if Isen might be the reincarnation of a slain immortal, bereft of his past memories.

The boy had shared very little of his past, though Ros had gleaned a few things. The boy had never had proper instruction, though had been taught for a short period of time, perhaps a few months. He knew how to read and write the common language of the continent and had a strong vocabulary. He had a broad imagination, seeming at times like the child he was, sharing his dreams. But Ros rarely saw that side of him.

The boy pursued advancement with a single-minded focus. He was good at it. But Ros could tell that he was using it to distract himself. That said, if Isen wanted to lose himself in the pursuit of perfection, Ros wouldn’t stop him.

Especially if they really did quest for the opportunity on the lake. Ros had confidence in its ability to escape with its life if it encountered a situation beyond its capabilities, but was less sure about protecting Isen. The boy was a strong swimmer, surprisingly agile for a human, but was limited by his size and cultivation tier. If he developed an external cultivation technique, however, he might be able to contribute to a fight from Ros’s back, placing him in a less vulnerable position.

It was a lot to expect of a novice cultivator.

The beast gave Isen a week to figure it out.

In the end, it took the boy five days.