Chapter 7: Chapter 7 – Of Rivers, of Ponds, of Stars

So... We still had to harvest some fruits, weird blue apples, I was told to never try to give them a bite, since there was a chance as a spirit I could explode, so resisting the lobster situation, I harvested at least a hundred of them, I didn't bother counting them. Finally when the sun had just passed its zenith, I was going to do something else then harvesting. "Well, I can't help ye after a certain point, however I can teach ye how to find yer path by yerself." Saying that the halfling went to another room in the house, bringing from there 2 books. "To start we need to give ye access to yer personal archive. these books will help ye to do that."

"If you mean the Inquiry skill I already have it." The halfling looked at me confused.

"Well, that is a skill I never heard of, does it give ye information?" I gave a nod to his question which made him ask another thing. "Is it common 1 or 2?" answering the question, he continued. "It will be easier then, won't need to teach ye Identify, these types of skills when reaching uncommon tend to give ye a skill that allows direct access to yer personal archive, before ye ask the personal archive is like a weaker version of the world system, when one has direct access to it all information experienced consciously is recorded, and easily recalled, it also allow ye to have skill that give ye ways to train in yer mind. However the speed ye can view the information is directly related to ye intelligence stat. Now read these books start to finish, and record then in yer skill."

So that's what I did, I read the books asking about the concepts to my skill after reading them. There was this book 'The basis of martial arts', It said about how one would start cultivating, asking what cultivation was to my skill resulted in the following answer.

[The basis of cultivation stems from the idea form of magic performed over time in a repetitive fashion, allowing one to start producing KI without the aid of mana.

one can change cultivation methods with some difficulty.

Cultivation can be performed in various ways, motionless, in motion, with tools, without tools, as long as there is a regular form in tandem with a matching idea, a basic form of cultivation in sitting, typically cross-legged, with the hands placed in front of ones designated place of secondary energy core, with the idea of calmness, like a pond. Called Calm pond method.]

[Skill Inquiry has gained a level.]

There was a lot of information given this time, Maybe having read the book gave it an easier time accessing the world archive, because there was nothing related to the calm pond method, I also asked what ki was the answer was simple but surprising.

[Ki is a variation of mana, found through the act of cultivation, Ki is self-sustaining and replicating, though only through the original cultivating method it can be increased.

Ki is the primary method used to increase ones physical stats, with different methods for different cultivation methods.]

[Skill Inquiry has gained a level.]

You are reading story The ArchSpirit at novel35.com

Inquiry got to level 6 surprisingly easy. There was also a general book about skills, apparently to be a skill it need to have the expenditure or making of an energy, the rest of the book was filled with skills and their uses, there were a lot of movement skills in it with very few magical ones. Asking for any more information about it there was a response.

[All skills stem from an idea brought to reality at a cost, any skill is possible to exist, as long as one knows the result wanted and has enough energy to pay for it.]

I wanted to start training already, however I needed to know more about the method I was going to use, "Do you know about the calm pond method." I directed my question towards Stubs, since I believed my skill would not give me everything I wanted without knowing even a bit about it.

"Yer skill could tell ye that? Does it have a rare access to the world archive of somethin'? Well it is a simple one, I used it also at the start since it is the easiest to transition to another at any level, yer skill being common can't give ye the entire meaning behind the method come on sit here cross-legged." He pointed at a tatami I did not notice there before, sitting in the position he wanted me to he corrected my posture over and over again before telling me about the method. "Well, now that ye are sitting correctly I can start to help ye, yer skill probably told ye about sitting like this and having yer hands above yer abdomen right? That part is easy, now I need ye to first get water in yer head." I started to imagine water-- SPLASH-- "Shit, WTF??" I got out of position opening my eyes, looking it the halfling direction I could see him with a pot, that still had droplets of water in it. "I told ye I would get water in yer head, whats that surprise?" I could see the shadow of a smirk in his face, however before I could protest he cut in. "Ye being so young, I can say that ye probably never saw water, so I had to use this to hopefully reawaken some old memories from yer spirit." Before I though of protesting I realized that now I had much more detailed memories of water, his little prank had worked, only grumbling I went back to my previous position, finding that the halfling did not correct me this time, I closed my eyes.

"Now that ye have yer memories refreshed we can start properly, yer skill probably told ye about imagining water, a pond, its a bot more complicated then that, so we'll start small, take a glass of water, how does it fill to move it, when placing in yer lips how does it feel, when it goes down yer throat, when ye can accurately feel that glass of water in yer head tell me."  The way he started got me somewhat surprised, but I still followed what he said, it took me a few hours to get it surprisingly, when I thought I got it something told me I didn't, like a gut feeling, the rest of the instructions he gave followed a similar principle. "Now make that glass a bowl, wash yer hands, yer face, replace it, how does it cling to yer skin, how does it affect yer eyes, how does it sound when ye pour it out." The principle being the same, I got this one in less time, what I had gotten wrong in the first one was that I only though on what examples he gave me, I had to truly feel the glass, not only follow what he said, the bowl was easier, I didn't just wash me but objects, utensils, towels, washing grates, I started to slowly expand the idea of water, I could see where he wanted me to go.

---

The halfling stayed quiet, he felt that the boy in front of him so easily got what he wanted to teach. The boy was much better then he expected, when Stubs gave him the scythe the other day a simple but understandable though went through his head. 'This boy will be difficult to teach.' To the surprise of the halfling he got easily what he had done wrong and fixed it with surprising ease, the boy didn't had the strength to cut the stalk of the white flax, but if he had he could easily match Stubs pace. The boy got slightly faster each day, not much to affect the time it would take, but to his old eyes, it was noticeable.

The boy on the fourth day was noticeably in a better mood, even when plucking the mana apples, Stubs had warned the arch-Spirit not to eat it, he had lied about what would happen, at worst he would have an upset stomach, however the apples where his wife's, and she knew exacly how much she would have from every harvest. Stubs was reminded that he offered the lass to train, he could easily train the boy to high heights, however he knew what such tactics could bring, he had seen the tragic fate of many noble children, some deserved it, some didn't. So he went with the way he was taught, he gave the boy the two books that started his journey, he intended to teach him the Identify skill, since he had a similar one already, even at common 2.

The boy stayed there reading the books he was given, in the mean time stubs brewed a cup of tea and lay down a tatami to the side, when he had done that he wanted to start cultivating right away, his teacher taught him the most simple cultivating method there was, as the halfling was drinking his tea, he heard the boy ask. "Do you know about the calm pond method." Stubs was surprised, but didn't show on his face, the lass's skill had access to the world archive, but not much since he had asked about it. Stubs directed the boy to the tatami he had prepared before, he had to correct their posture much more then expected, even if the lass could learn how to move much more easily then most, staying still was a problem, knowing they were born not long ago he fetched a bowl of water, splashing on their head, he could see that the boy would complain, but after he got the explanation he only grumbled under his breath.

Knowing that this could take a long time, and the lass would stay like that until his wife came home, he did what he had to do.

---

"Out. Ye can take the tatami, I need to sleep, ye can cultivate in the windmill." The halfling suddenly said while kicking my side, I didn't know if I had done something wrong,but at least I could see a smirk on his face, though not directed at me, but to the air. Getting up I asked if I could take the books, which got me a yes, Taking them and the tatami I went back to the windmill, I stayed cross-legged thinking about water for a while, I was only able to get to the size of a bath, even then I knew I had to get back to some steps before.

I knew what i was doing was still not cultivating, because I was not converting my mana, it was fun, I went back to sleep that night, i once again dreamed of rivers, and stars, but after a while all i could see was water, there was more, but I could and would never remember, somehow I knew this. And It was okay

You can find story with these keywords: The ArchSpirit, Read The ArchSpirit, The ArchSpirit novel, The ArchSpirit book, The ArchSpirit story, The ArchSpirit full, The ArchSpirit Latest Chapter