Augmented Aspects: Chapter 134 The Uniquely Awakened Condition (Patreon)

Chapter 134

The Uniquely Awakened Condition

To be honest, I don’t always know exactly how I get into the situations that I get into.

Take for instance the fact that I now have a line of people, with weapons drawn, ready to face me in some form of combat.

“Just twenty, the first twenty.” Mallory says from the sidelines having sat by and watched the first three matches at least.

“Me first.”

“Oh me, I’m next.”

Sighing, I take a deep breath and realize that sometimes friends get you into more trouble than they get you out of.

“Thanks Mal.” I state, making sure to have a bit of condescension in my words.

“Oh, come on, not like you don’t love the fact that you are being paid to work out.” Mallory says smugly.

I open my mouth to protest, but then just pause as I know she is right. I think I would much rather do these types of sparring events, than having to teach close to two hundred students each round.

“Fine, but I will only take students who already have a grasp on what Qi is and how to move it within their bodies. As such, I will work with you, you, you, and you.” I say pointing to the four students who seem to be cycling Qi within their bodies.

With that, the four students that I pointed out move forward.

“The rest of you, have until I am done unlocking a class with them to find your own Qi, and be able to demonstrate that you can move it around on your own.” I state.

With that there are a bunch of groans, but I already have my guard Captain and several of his subordinate troops coming in to help get the line of students waiting to beat me up, to sit down.

Once they sit down, I nod, then get in a ready position, as I gesture for the first student to come towards me.

The student is a large orc, with a giant broad sword in hand. While their Qi control isn’t anything to write home about, they clearly have a better understanding of how Qi works than most of the people here.

As for me, I am unarmed, not because I don’t have access to weapons, it just that I already maxed out my Dagger skill a while ago and am working on new unarmed combat skills.

Of course, unarmed combat isn’t a skill in and of itself, but rather it is a catch all for actual skills that fall under the broad category of unarmed combat. This is similar to the fact that we cannot have a skill on mathematics, but we can on Astrophysics, Physics, Geometry, and so on.

Now, the question of why would I do such a thing, when I am facing a monster that is clearly twice my size and could slice me in half if I messed up. Well, other than the fact that I am fairly certain I could heal myself back together. Okay, I could heal, after I got over the whole mind-numbing pain that I would be in from the swipe. I do legitimately want these people to succeed.

Also this guy is clearly a giant teddy bear and willing to hold back. For that, I make it a mental plan to go easy on him.

“Ready?” The large orc asks, both hands firmly gripping the massive broadsword that looks somewhat tiny within his large muscular hands.

I nod.

Then he nods back in recognition, before charging forward. His massive feet clomping on the ground as he uses his muscles to spring forward, while raising his broad sword above high above his head. His moves are as obvious as my ex’s gambling addictions. Yet, I let him move forward anyways.

It is clear that he is being a bit obvious to give me a chance to move out of the way. Being as I let him use his real weapon, he is aligning his blow to miss off center to my right just a smidge. I do appreciate this, as it would mean the blow would be immediately fatal if it struck. Meaning that a healer of my caliber should be able to heal from it, especially as it would miss my heart and only pierce my lung. Still painful, but an injury I could likely bounce back from.

I can almost see the moment when he commits to the swing, a note of maybe he went a little too hard filling his face, despite his face being covered by a giant aviator mask. I am sort of jealous as his mask clearly shows his prowess within the mechanics guild, as it is a continuation of all things steam punk. Starting with the goggles, then going down to the nose guard, and the face mask for welding purposes. His face is completely covered and protected by the soul bound gear, yet despite that, I can see his actions, his facial features, and most importantly I can sense his intent from his energy.

He truly wants to learn from this, which is why I am more than happy to give a light spar with the man.

Which is why I move.

My speed has been increased over the past few days, first with my new guild uniform that increases my base speed by 10%, followed by my core that once again improves my speed by an additional 10% or a cumulative 21% from both. Meaning that when I move, without Celerity, I have to be careful that the area is clear.

Half-shuffle left.

Infuse Qi into my hand, then perfectly strike the side of the giant descending blade.

Ting.

There is an intense ringing sound, as my fingers strike at the giant metal sword. The great thing about such a large sword is that there is a lot of surface area to strike. Fortunately, I didn’t need the whole surface area, as I managed to strike dead center.

His hands and then body shake from the impact of my blow.

“Cycle your Qi, to your hands. Stabilize your body.” I state, realizing that this is a perfect time to impart ways to improve.

The Orc nods his head, then begins doing so, as he twists the blade and tries to swipe at me with a cross-cut.

I do a bending duck, one that has me bending so low it almost looks like I would fall over.

I should, technically, but I’m cheating.

See while competing in all my duels I have been using Spirit Drift, which essentially makes it so my body weight is at zero.

Why is this important? Well simple, despite my bad angle, I won’t fall due to a lack of gravity pulling me down.

The orc clearly misses me, then slices his blade up high, to then bring it down on me.

Qi fuses his arms as he manages to get just a bit more speed out of his strike.

Whoosh!

The blade lands with a crash into the ground, spraying up dust and debris everywhere. This is the moment I use to move and speak simultaneously.

“Very good, you infused the Qi into your arms and then used that to gain speed with your strikes. Keep visualizing this, for your concept.” I state.

“What?” As the dust clears a few of the other students who were watching and waiting stare on in amazement.

“How did she?”

“She’s on the blade?”

“Yo, look, she is balancing on the blade, just like a Shaolin master!” A third cries out in excitement.

I am actually, balancing on the sword, that is, again a lot easier when you cheat and weigh nothing. Or close to nothing, as I have made it so I have a slight weight, but not much.

Circular swipe.

The orc swings his blade around in a wide circular rotation to throw me off, again this would work if I had true weight, but I am able to quickly curl my toes around the blade, providing just enough grip to maintain my placement on the blade.

I even make sure to have my hands behind the back, because, well I can.

By now, my awakening duels, for that is what they are being called have become quite a spectacle. Everyone is using them to be one of the first to learn a new class. Right now, we have had five new unique classes get created within the Midnight Hunters guild.

As for me, why am I still willing to teach more people and get them to gain new classes? Well first, no one can ever learn my Qi related class, not even if I wanted to teach them they just couldn’t. Also, I get the feeling that my class Akashic Qi Master was meant to be the class trainer that the system described. Basically, I am meant to do what I am doing and get others to learn about new classes and progressions. Finally, and most importantly, I get a experience bonus for not only the person that I trained to get a new class, but I also get a fraction of the experience bonus based on the future members of that awakened class. This would be the equivalent of being the ultimate mana user, and then getting experience for everyone that learned to be a mage, translation, easy experience.

Shake, wobble, shake.

The orc shakes his blade around, swiping it in cross cuts, but I manage to stay with and on the blade the entire time. I do cheat on this, as I infuse Qi into my feet, allowing me to have a sort of magnetic resonance with the blade, making it so I am able to keep my feet on the blade, by essentially shooting a bolt of energy through the blade to my other foot that will then send back a completed circuit to my originating foot.

“Grr!”

The orc growls a deep billowing sound, and I can tell that he is now starting to get angry due to the way his Qi color is changing. Apparently, he thinks I am mocking him, which I was, but I only wanted to see how patient he was. Probably not the best excuse, but if I teach an overpowered orc how to beat people to a pulp easier, I want to rest assured that they are fairly calm individuals to begin with.

“Cycle the Qi into the blade, and have the blade become an extension of your own body.” I state.

With that, the shaking blade stops as the orc hearing my words pauses, then nodding once internalizes the thought. Then begins channeling his own Qi into the blade, which then promptly cuts my magnetic circuit I had created, forcing me to do a back flip off the blade, where I land on the ground.

“Very good.” I say, nodding. Of course, my hands are still folded behind my back as I am trying to see if the orc has gained enough enlightenment on his own, or if he will need a bit more encouragement.

Like a furnace, his Qi is swelling up inside him.

Then he begins to clasp at his chest, as the power is beginning to become to intense.

I gasp in amazement for a moment, and my first reaction is to cycle his Qi for him. But I stop myself, as that would negate this breakthrough that he is clearly having, or at least close to having.

“Yes, don’t fight it. Go with it, cycle the Qi the way your body wants it. You can move, and let your Qi move with you.” I state, awe and excitement filling my words as I watch him.

First, he cycles the Qi within his body. For a moment he had stopped, and this was dangerous, almost like suddenly forgetting to breathe, then forgetting how breathing is done. This was sort of like that, all except there were no instincts on Qi circulation, at least not yet, as his internal muscles hadn’t yet adapted to this newfound ability.

Still, he clutched at his chest, and that was the very point where he started to circulate Qi from. The Qi cycled around his body, out his arm, through his large blade, then back down his arm, where it ran a circuit around his body before returning to his core.

Then I saw the moment when his body began to glow with a brilliant golden light, showing that he had a breakthrough.

“I did it!” He shouted.

“YES!” I shout.

“WHOOHOO!” Everyone who had been watching the “duel” cried out as well, as this was a day of many new classes. For it was clear that those that were watching the duels still had their chance to unlock a unique class of their own, or they could eventually be taken on as a disciple to one of these newly awakened masters. Either way was fine for me, and it was all being encouraged by Mallory who was filled with wrapped attention.

WHOOSH!

There was a pulse and explosion of Qi, as it was clear the system was stating that the orc had in fact done it, that he had discovered and chosen to be the temporary sole wielder of a unique class devoted to Qi cultivation.

“I did it!” He shouted, one giant Qi infused fist hoisted in the air, while his second hand held the oversized blade off to the side like it was little more than an oversized stick in his mitts.

“What class did you get?” Mallory asked.

While she asked, I already saw the system message alerting me to the class, and I couldn’t help but stifle a laugh at the class the orc just so happened to have unlocked.

Unique Quest Completed: Inspiring the Next Generation (Repeatable): You have helped Jayhalem discover and found a completely undiscovered Qi cultivation class. For as long as Jayhalem remains the main progenitor for his class, you will earn a 2% shared experience bonus gained from all Jayhalem’s future class advancements. Furthermore, you will gain a shared 1% experience bonus from all future disciples of Jayhalem, and the legendary Qi Fusion Fighters. Rewards: Continual Experience.

Just as I finished reading and internalizing the system message, I heard the orc, Jayhalem, proudly proclaim himself to be the sole owner of the unique class, “…Qi Fusion Fighter.”

At that I cracked a smile and did my best not to laugh at the great class with a terribly unfortunate name. No wait, the name wasn’t bad, just my acronym for the class was terrible.

Almost as if reading my thoughts on the matter, Mallory instantly turned to me and gave me a scowl that said if I said or did anything to state the acronym I was thinking, she would make sure there was hell to pay.

As she stared at me, I turned to her and raised my hands up innocently. “What, it sounds like an amazing class.”

“It is,” Jayhalem began, clearly not hearing my intonations, that or he was far too kind to even let our reactions dampen his amazing mood. “I can infuse not only my body with Qi to help with movements and power, but I can also infuse items I hold.”

At that, I pause. “Items you hold?”

“Yes.”

“It states that, items, not just weapons?” I ask.

“Yes, why?” Jayhalem asks, as he suddenly seems to realize he missed something.

“That, that is amazing.” I say, and I mean it. “With that, you should in time be able to use Qi to help with mechanical constructs as well.”

“What, I can?” He asks, suddenly intrigued.

Not just him, as everyone seems to be intrigued by this.

“Yes, I should have seen it before, but your proclivities are towards the Mechanical Guild right?” I ask.

“Yes, I am a Grand Master rank with the Mechanical Guild.” He said.

I nod, having already figured as much with the mask he was wearing. “Well this class, should allow you to eventually infuse Qi into the mechanical items you create, and then use those items to further help with your fighting style.”

He pauses then asks, “but isn’t Qi counter to mechanical devices?”

“How did you get that?” I ask, then realizing that he is not the only one who seems lost. “Qi is just energy, a different type of energy than what we are typically used to, but just as we can use a potato to power a watch, we can use Qi to power an anything…” I trail off, not able to find something big enough to show the scale of what I am trying to explain.

Then just as that seemed to be registered by him and by others, I saw that my mission I had just accomplished was upgraded.

Unique Quest Completed (Upgraded): Inspiring the Next Generation (Repeatable): You have helped Jayhalem discover and found a completely undiscovered Qi cultivation class. For as long as Jayhalem remains alive, you will earn a 5% shared experience bonus gained from all Jayhalem’s future class advancements. Furthermore, you will gain a shared 2% experience bonus from all future disciples of Jayhalem, and the legendary Qi Fusion Fighters. Rewards: Continual Experience.

That was nearly double for all rewards, well two and a half times for anything Jayhalem did, and then double what his students accomplished. Still, that was a great bonus, as it meant nearly constant experience coming in over the lifetime of that class.

Also, the part about him needing to remain the leader of the class was gone. Now it just stated that so long as he was alive, I would gain a sympathetic 5% of all class experience.

Suddenly, just as I was close to feeling like I was done, I decided I might be able to squeeze out a few more attempts to help students learn new classes. You, know, for them, and their futures…