Augmented Aspects: Chapter 158 Joy and Sadness (Patreon)

Chapter 158

Joy and Sadness

Everyone from my morning classes devoted to Qi Manifestation were all working together, doing burpee after burpee with Jhonny. The Lieutenant had long since collapsed into an exhausted pile of bones and barely breathing muscles.

The Lich by now had long since bowed out and just sat at the corner of the classroom, taking in all of my Enchantments that I had woven throughout the open aired space.

The Knight Captain was still technically in the competition, though he wasn’t even a quarter of the way through his remaining burpees that were owed. Instead, it was the entire class and myself working with Jhonny. The original twenty-first student of our class, the one who didn’t make the cut because he didn’t develop a unique class devoted to him.

Yet, despite his lack of talent and creativity he still had that spark that we all seemed to love and cheer on. He had a great personality, and above all he had the will to never quit on any given situation. Which was how we found ourselves here.

“Come on, you can do it. Finish this.” Stevron and a few other students who had watched the beginnings of this quest still cheered on Jhonny.

“You are all monsters, the lot of you.” The Knight Captain called out, his voice somehow reaching me over the chorus of cheering students who were all now cheering Jhonny on.

At this point it was about pride in our school, pride in what we were trying to accomplish here, and above all pride in ourselves that we all used to push Jhonny along.

It took me a moment and the popup of the system message to realize that the Knight Captain’s cry of pain was actually his resignation from the competition.

Hidden Quest Updated: New Recruits: You were challenged by the visiting Deolar delegation members to participate in your morning exercise. After 60 minutes, all of the other participants failed to complete all of the obstacles as noted during the original agreement. Furthermore, when given a chance to make up the obstacles with a chosen set of exercises each member of the Deolar delegation achieved muscle failure. Current participants not at muscle failure (0/3). Current number of participants involved in the bonus challenge (1/1): Jhonny, remaining burpees (1,432 / 4,900).

“Come on Jhonny, you are almost there. Keep pushing.” I shouted, realizing that Jhonny had a chance at some amazing. At first, I pushed him for the legacy bonus, the ability to state that my weakest student was better than anyone the Deolar delegation could throw at us. But that would be demeaning to Jhonny, he wasn’t the weakest, far from it as he had that inner flame where he set personal goals for himself and then never quit.

Still, he was nearing muscle failure a number of times, and while I could have cheated. I could have easily healed him and removed the uric acid that was building up within his body, that wouldn’t solve anything. As I could have done that to the others as well and made it so everyone was still pushing themselves, even now. Instead, Jhonny had to push himself on his own.

Though I did give pointers where I could.

“Try spinning your Qi while cycling it, as your body is building up too much uric acid.” I said, using my third eye and monitoring his body. I would stop him if he got dangerous, which he was close, but fortunately he somehow kept managing to do just enough to keep going.

Then when he hit his last hundred, I could almost feel the fire burning deeply within him, as he began going through his burpees faster and faster. Each set causes just a little bit more of a burn to form in his body.

He was close to a breakthrough, I could see it clearly, as he was putting himself under so much pressure and strain that his core was forming almost before my eyes, well my third eye.

By this point it was already late, as my students for my Enchanting class had come and were waiting around for this to end. Almost five thousand burpees is ridiculous, and yet somehow Jhonny kept going.

Somewhere in the down time both the Lieutenant and Knight Captain both recovered and arose to watch on in shock as both Jhonny and I continued to go through the burpees together.

Wobble.

He began to wobble as he had pushed his body not once but twice past muscle failure and likely gained a Second Wind type skill somewhere in there. Yet, that would only do so much.

As for me, I felt a burn but my natural Regeneration merit, and my second tier Qi core made this whole process rather easy. I also used my own struggles, and ways to overcome them as the advice I gave Jhonny.

Then finally after long last, it happened.

GONG!

Not a chime, not an alert that someone had done something major, but a full-on ground shaking gong could be heard echoing out across the landscape.

Jhonny who had finished his burpee by getting to the up position paused and was caught in that odd moment between dropping down and catching himself in a push up before he realized he was done.

Then his mind apparently paused for just a moment as he tried to take in everything. I say this, as for a moment his mind and body stopped circulating Qi within his body, and then boom everything happened all at once.

Thud.

His body collapsed to the ground; everyone took a step forward. I was already moving next to him, taking in everything and realizing this might be it.

Spasm.

Jhonny started spasming.

Gasp.

As would be expected, everyone that was watching let out a gasp in shock.

“Calm down, calm down. He is condensing his Qi core.” I said, more than a little bit of pride seeping into my voice.

Then I saw his body begin pulling energy into one spot, while at the next second I saw something that I had never seen before.

Black mud and tar seemed to be getting pulled into his meridians, as if pulled by gravity. Then once a substantial pool of black tar was amassed in a sphere around the core, the core that had been pulling everything within it, tighter and tighter, suddenly buckled under the strain, then began to push out.

There was a brief wall of golden light that radiated out from the core.

Seeing the ball of golden light and the subsequent pushing out, I realized almost immediately what was happening.

Once again, my body began reacting more on instinct rather than anything. This time, rather than heading forward, I began shuffling backwards, squirming my way through the crowd of bodies that had gathered around to see what was happening.

Then it happened.

Splat.

A violent eruption of oils, waste, and impurities were expelled violently from Jhonny’s body.

Some of those who had gotten close were suddenly sprayed by streams of smelly oils that would give a skunk a run for supremacy.

“GAHH!” Those that were immediately nearby Jhonny began to lurch back with terror at the smell. As for me, I began moving forward, realizing that being small and slippery had helped, especially as I had used the gawking Underhill who had bravely taken the spray that would have likely covered both myself and him. Now thanks to his large frame, he was the only one to take the hit.

“Back up, back up.” I shout, going back towards Jhonny.

Looking at him, I realized that I had apparently dodged a bullet by always recycling my own mana for food and sustenance, effectively making this body cleansing process rather painless.

By now Jhonny who had been awake the entire time, just unable to control his body, began trying to get up, but his oily hands kept slipping against the ground. Seeing him, I reached down and grabbed his hand with my own gloved hand.

With that I provided the balance and support he needed to lift himself up. He stood there a bit woozily for a moment, before his body began to quickly heal the damage that he had forced himself to overcome.

Finally, after a few moments, the three Deolar delegates made their way through the group of staring onlookers. They were of course led by Knight Captain Glavis De’Arcaneri, followed by the Lieutenant and then finally the Lich.

As they got closer, they tried to approach, but were apparently stopped by a bad odor, as both the Knight Captain and Lieutenant both stopped and clearly twisted their nose as they came within contact of the overpowering smell.

“I must say, I misjudged both you and the caliber of students you are training here.” Glavis said, as he kneeled to on knee before me.

Hearing that, I nodded.

Then turning his attention to Jhonny, he spoke, and as he did, I felt a strange sense of power come over his words. This was the strange sense of power that I had felt nearly seven years ago when I had a chance encounter with an immeasurable being.

Pausing I, like everyone else stared on to see what the Knight Captain would say next.

“As for you, brave guardian, I must say you are an inspiration to me. From now on I will use you and your ethics and tenacity as the standard that I will always hold myself to, Mr. Jhonny Innerflame.” The Knight Captain spoke.

CHIME!

Then just like that, it happened. I was shocked at first, as I didn’t quite know what to do, but then shifting my perceptions towards Jhonny, I could feel that he had gotten immensely powerful. Not just by condensing his core, but by also receiving a last name.

I was about to ask what the name did, but before I could a world message came out.

World Announcement: The First Regressor to Achieve a Qi Related Last Name has Appeared. Rejoice, for now the age of Qi Masters can truly begin.

Seeing the world announcement, I instantly felt a wave of excitement for Jhonny, no Jhonny Innerflame, as he clearly deserved such a reward for all his hard work and dedication.

“You did it, you did it!” I shouted excitedly and jumped into his arms. On reflex he grabs my small frame and smilingly holds me tight.

That is when I instantly regretted that decision as he still smelled like dead skunk musk that had rotted inside your radiator.

“Ugh, oh gods. You need to bathe though.” I say, as I push myself off, only to find out that I am covered in cultivator slime, and sweat.

Fortunately, it is just a quick Cleanse spell for me, and all the gunk was gone.

During this time, numerous other people came forward, trying to congratulate Jhonny, but apparently all were instantly assaulted by the overwhelming stench, just as I was.

After I make sure I am clean, I then go about casting Group Cleanse on the entire area, making sure that even my practice yard is cleaned from the residual scents of Jhonny’s rapid breakthrough.

I am of course working this magic in the background, while everyone else finally gets over the thought of the smell, and eventually goes to congratulate Jhonny directly.

Hidden Quest Completed: New Recruits: You and a member of your class were challenged by the visiting Deolar delegation members to participate in your morning exercise. After 60 minutes, all of the Deolar participants reached muscle failure, while you and your student managed to continue on until the end. Deolar participants not at muscle failure (0/3). Current number of participants involved in the bonus challenge (1/1): Jhonny, remaining burpees (0 / 4,900). Rewards: Experience, Deolar prestige, and Bonus (All rewards have been doubled).

Experience Gained: 125,000 / 62,500 / 62,500

Ding.

Level up.

Akashic Qi Master has increased to level 145.

Ethereal Simulacrums Master has increased to level 204.

Ethereal Healer has increased to level 252.

New Evolutionary Threshold met.

An active Aura must be chosen by the Unique class trainer.

With that, I realized a few things. First the fact that I spent a bit of time focusing on choosing my previous class advancements paid off ass there was no way I would have missed the level threshold from the experience gained from this quest.

Additionally, I had to figure out what type of aura I wanted to have. Since this was an aura related to my Healer class, I logically wanted something that would help regenerate life from people or spirits, but I already had both of those from my bloodlines. While I could theoretically choose one to strengthen due to my class. I wondered if I could push this advancement in another way.

I wanted to choose something, but unfortunately nothing I could think of made sense for the class, nor did it make sense as to how I could use it to help me in the future. I thought about all of the different forms of magic that I would like a bonus with, but none seemed to fit. Well, none other than ones further increasing my ability to Heal, which made sense for a healer class, but I figured as an Ethereal healer there was more. As I was someone who could use all forms of energy and ultimately convert them to be able to heal. Worse, I had to choose an option as the system before me would not let me leave until this option was chosen.

Then the idea just came to me.

An Ethereal Healer, who used all types of energy to heal, could have an aura that produced all forms of energy. Or rather, just energy.

Do you wish to choose your active aura as Generic Energy Aura?

Seeing that message, I paused. I knew many higher end assassins could use shadow auras to hide their movements. At one point in time, I too would have chosen something like that, but unfortunately, I glowed like a night light to anyone with a modicum of magical abilities. Even those without magical abilities could now tell people of my bloodline apart from regular users.

Part of me wanted a Qi based aura, but that also made no sense for a magical healer class. Additionally, my body could use the ambient energy to be absorbed and turned into Qi, meaning I would effectively be an endless mana to Qi battery for myself. Realizing that there were a lot of things I could do with this Generic Energy Aura, I decided to accept this as my base template.

“Yes.” I mentally answered the system.

Then with that, I received the notification.

Ethereal Healer level 250 class evolution chosen. Generic Energy Aura.

Generic Energy Aura: Produces an area effect around the class holder that generates 1% of the class owner’s overall magic pool per second. Radius of effect equal to one tenth of user’s Willpower. Aura of effect be toggled on and off, at a cost of 0.5% mana per second.

Honestly that wasn’t that bad of an aura as it meant that I and every other Ethereal Healer would be able to fully regenerate their mana pool within two hundred seconds. That might not seem like much, particularly when the activation fee costs half of the overall bonus, but for long and involved surgeries or healing procedures that could easily save lives. Particularly as this aura could essentially be used by others around me as well.

“My lady, I mean Dr. Spiritlight, please forgive me for my earlier assumptions.” The Knight Captain said, bowing before me and all but prostrating himself for forgiveness.

“Please forgive me as well.” The Lieutenant said bowing as well.

With that, I could feel myself getting one step closer towards being able to awaken the spiritual Qi within these two knights. I could also feel myself getting just that much closer towards possibly starting off my own Mythical bloodline quest, though that would be a long and challenging process. Still, the possibility was there.

Then I turned to the Lich, who looked flustered for a second, before stating, “I have nothing to ask for forgiveness for, as I never claimed to be a warrior. In fact, you still need to prove yourself as a semi-decent Enchanter. Though, I would like to know how you found these ancient ruins and were able to get them to work properly.”

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but feel a snicker rise in my throat, as this Lich still tried to look down on me. While I was about to put him into his place, I had two things remaining on my list to do for the morning.

The first thing was to choose a specialty for my Akashic Qi Master class. My second major thing was to test out my newly acquired level 200 Traits.

“Fair enough, but if you all will excuse me for a second.” I said.

Then before anyone could object, I Teleported out of the immediate area.

Poof.

I appeared in an open field and feeling my heart pounding in excitement, I let a smile come to my lips as I tried to activate my newly acquired Trait for the first time.

Positional Teleportation.

I opened a portal to my Simulacrum on the second floor of the Acanarus Tower, half expecting Zero to come dashing through the portal to my arms.

Opening the portal, I held it there, and with arms wide open I waited, and waited.

After a few seconds of waiting, I realized something was off, so I tried to enter the portal, popping my head in, only to see Zero and my Simulacrum reading books together.

Zero looked at me, but then turned his nose up in an obvious harumph and turned away.

My Simulacrum just smiled one of those awkward smiles, where you try to be cordial and try to stay out of things.

And like that, I realized that I once again alienated someone else that I love, out of my life.