Reflection and Mistake

The walk back was peaceful, the town sounded alive with the upcoming trial. There was always a large celebration for those who survived the trial and managed to awaken their cores. They were given spirit beast meat and chi infused drinks to give them a large boost to their starting reserves. When someone was freshly awoken, they would be tempted to absorb external essence and convert it into chi right away. Doing this though was not smart, as external chi would always carry an aspect like fire, water, or earth. The core was sensitive in its formative stages, and if you were not careful and absorbed too much of one aspect you could convert your core to only accept that aspect in the future.

Each new Soul Warrior was expected to serve the clan and continue to delve deeper into the dungeon to collect resources. So once they awoke their cores, the clan would give them some resources that had aspectless essence in it so as to not taint their cores. The energy would then be stored for missions and training purposes since recovering chi was challenging. If one did not have access to essence of their aspect or aspectless essence, they could not create more chi. That was why most people would choose a common element, something that they would be around frequently to allow them to progress with as little downtime as possible.

Most who used the clan to awaken were forced to pick an element based on clan need, talent, and their innate aspect predisposition. Once they had their aspect picked, they would be sent either in to the dungeon, or out to the boarder following some basic training. Then after a time they would rotate between dungeon diving and boarder patrol to ensure no other clans mounted an attack against them.

Kantan was making quick progress through the town, the alleyways familiar and well traveled. People were bustling from building to building with decorations and food to be prepared. It was a warming atmosphere to have everyone working together for a change, as compared to the rest of the year when each cultivator was focused on their own improvement. With each soul rank they achieved, not only did they grow stronger but they lived longer as well. This was incentive enough for most to strive toward the higher soul ranks, though some did so simply because there was no better way to increase one's standing and finances.

As Kantan neared the outer parts of the town the activity died down as did the traffic, giving him some needed quite. As much as he could appreciate the atmosphere of the town, he was not an overly social creature to begin with and the intensity of it all got to him more than he liked. While he walked toward his grandfather's house he focused on his breathing, imagining the Chi he hoped to awaken flowing in to him with each breath. The Astaire clan cultivation method was reportedly one of the easier to perform, focusing on condensing as much power as possible, instead of winding it through unique patterns to increase its complexity.

When it came to the different ways to cultivate chi Kantan struggled to fully comprehend the difference when he couldn't manipulate the energy himself. His grandfather had told him to imagine chi complexity as the pattern you maintained your chi in. The higher a person's complexity, the more chi they would be able to store at the higher ranks. By putting chi into specific patterns called weaves, it would allow you to store it much tighter without having to maintain it as frequently. The Astaire style of cultivation simply attempted to amass as much chi into their core pushing instead to widen their reserves instead of condensing. Given the Chief of the clan was only at the sapphire rank like his grandfather, the clan mainly wanted more stone warriors. Since the biggest hurdle of reaching stone rank was supposed to be having enough energy, the clan had developed this technique to stock pile it as fast as possible.

His grandfather had made the comparison with ice, showing that a bucket full of ice had gaps and pockets of air. It worked, but it was not efficient and would leave gaps in his strength.When the ice in the bucket finally melted, it was less than half full. Weaved chi was compared to water, filling the space it was given completely. The difference was also clear in how one utilized the chi within them. When His grandfather attempted to pour the ice out of the bucket, it would stick as it melted and form clumps. chi wanted to be weaved, and left alone would form patterns. This was true of chi that was cultivated as well, but without concentrated effort it was slow and constantly replaced as the user burned chi to perform enhanced actions and movements. Soul Warriors without weaved chi would often use much more of their energy with each movement and strike than they needed to. He than had Kantan pour just a glass of water from the bucket, which was significantly easier, and he only spilled a little.

Reaching the house and seeing his grandfather's distracted mess, he couldn't help but chuckle. Most who could reach the higher soul ranks were a bit eccentric, and his grandfather was no exception. After cleaning up a bit and packing a quick bag of food, Kantan payed his respects to his parents shrine before heading back out toward the town. His grandfather had been out attending to something, likely a form of training, so he had gotten ready in record time. He was often distracted while his grandfather was around, constantly stopping to talk and banter. If he didn't enjoy their conversations so much he may have been annoyed at how often it made him late.

The road was relatively bare, as he only passed one cart heading out to one of the farms on his way into town. The sun was beginning to descend in the sky, signalling the beginning of evening. His stomach rumbled, reminding him to hurry to the northern side of town so he could eat the food he had prepared. Kantan fingered the string tying the bag closed in anticipation, though he kept his stomach at bay as he jogged the side streets and alleyways of the inner town.

Having lived his life here he could find his way to just about anywhere in the city relatively quickly. Since Lyra lived toward the northern side of town he knew the route better than others, having come to play with her as children frequently. As he thought back on their playing the curiosity of where they were going began to draw on him. His legs moved on automatic, weaving between the back roads with practice efficiency. Kantan traveled for a few minutes this way until he bumped into a wall of flesh, knocking him to the ground in surprise.

The impact surprised him more than hurt, knocking him to the ground. Kantan rubbed his behind absently as he climbed to his feet. "Sorry about that, I should have been paying more attention." He chuckled as he looked up to the person he had ran into. The man was tall and thick with muscle, sporting a clean shaven face and short cropped hair. Kantan took a few steps back as he noticed the man's face, a shade of red that made him uncomfortable. A subtle but definite pressure began to push on Kantan, making the hair on his neck and arms raise.

Then man was wearing a set of the clan's militia leather, marking him as a border warrior. "Yeah you should have." The man's fingers were curling into a fist and relaxing repeatedly, setting Kantan on edge.

"I'm sorry if I have inconvenienced you Senior. I shall pay closer attention to my surroundings in the future." Kantan bowed respectfully and collected his food sack, wanting to disengage from the situation entirely. He began to walk around the warrior, but a firm hand grasped his shoulder. His momentum was immediately halted and the man's hands were like a vice. A feeling of dread began to creep into him as the force increased.

"Did I say you could leave, Unawoken?"