Azyl Academy (Elemental Gatherers Book 1)

by Chris Vines

  Level three was equivalent to high Smoke Gathering, and the Wind Wolves Xiao was so interested were usually at this level. Level four was the same as Foundation Compression, with Shadow Leopards as a prime example. Level five was the dividing line between Beasts and Elemental Beasts, since the equivalent of Complete Compression is when they begin to develop intelligence. Silver Apes are usually at this level in the deeper parts of the Great Western Forest. Level six was equivalent to a Core Seed and seven was equivalent to a Complete Core. Both the Pokryc Fox and Spedis Owl present were level six.

  Elemental Beasts went up to level nine, after which they were known as Primordial Beasts and best avoided or appeased since there were only a couple people close to being able to cause even minor damage to them. The Kraken in the Dividing Sea was a level eleven, and to cross the sea required special ships that were heavily enchanted with distraction runes. We couldn’t fight the Kraken, just avoid it. Wow, that would be why the map Pa had simply said there be Beasts beyond here. At least it seems to be unable to enter shallow water, or it might have eaten the Capital, like all of it, already.

  One of the reasons that the Kingdom only had nominal control over the Great Western Forest and the Skraj mountains, was the presence of several Primordial Beasts that ruled over territories in the deepest parts. Mankind only explored the edges of the wilderness on this world since they aren’t the apex predator here.

  We finished the lesson by discussing Elemental Fowl. One of the few Beasts domesticated, it was unique in that what you fed one would change its elemental affinity. They were raised on farms west and north of the city, with each farm typically focusing on a single element. They were useful as food, especially since they bred very rapidly. They were only a danger to people in large groups since they could project very weak elemental attacks that overlapped each other to grow powerful. By our powers combined! Heh. The lesson ended with a task to find a book describing Beasts and do some reading, to grow accustomed to looking up information on targets and threats. We were then dismissed to get to Physical Training.

  PT started with a run, along with push-ups and other calisthenics. We were then dismissed to our smaller groups to study. All this week would be is self-guided study with exercises, to help our bodies build the necessary muscles and get used to our weapons. The memory stone showed me a blocking motion in reverse grip followed by a stab and slash motion in front grip, along with the important footwork required to keep balanced. Lastly, it tied all of the motions together into a series of motions called a Form. I would have to master the Form to advance to the next part of the memory stone or to get a new one. First, let’s work through the individual motions, then start on the Form.

  I spent the rest of the PT time getting all the individual moves down, and started combining them, such as stabbing in front grip with my right hand while blocking high in reverse grip with my left. I was trying to be able to do something different with each hand without too much focus. Well, I didn’t make any progress on the Form, but I’ll take some time this evening to work on it. Basics first will give me a better foundation. We finished PT with a run again. After finishing it I realized that I had just run my fourth 5K in two days after calisthenics, but I was only tired, not exhausted as I thought I should be. Gathering, opening meridians, and the Aether infused food is helping us to grow stronger faster. This is amazing! I’m gonna be a superhero when I grow up!

  After PT there was a mad rush for the showers, and once everyone had gotten clean, the rush repeated itself at dinner. I’m pretty certain everyone got seconds I thought as I cleaned up my plate. There wasn’t a lot of talking, as nearly everyone was exhausted. Exercising for three hours straight isn’t something most of the students had ever done before.

  After dinner, a large group of people headed to the library to find books, but I decided to take the time to open my spine meridian and carve the Metal rune into my center. Then I would gather for an hour and work on my trisula Form. I’ll get a book before class in the morning. I headed out to the same pavilion from that morning. Upon arriving, I found Jamila there, already meditating. I was startled, but there were three positions available so I simply took the one on the opposite side and sat down.

  First things first I thought as I focused into my center. I carefully found the spine meridian I identified earlier because I didn’t want to make any mistakes with anything connected to my spinal cord. I like being able to walk very much, no breaking spinal column, no sir. As I reached into my center to grab Aether, I realized it was getting easier to manipulate it. Not significantly so, but enough to be noticeable. I decided to try and open the meridian with only a tiny bit of Aether.

  I tried to grab only a single mote, but couldn’t make the grip of my will small enough. After a couple of tries, I focused on imagining a tiny gripper claw, rather than a hand. Fewer pieces in my mental image made it easier to make the image itself smaller. I still wasn’t able to grab a single one, but I was able to reduce the number I grabbed to three. This should be small enough. I gently guided the three motes to the entrance of the spinal meridian and pushed them through. They basically flew down the open portion of the meridian, until they reached the bottom of my spine. After they ran into the first bone, they vanished. Wait, what? I thought. Focusing as hard as I could there, I realized that the bone seemed slightly denser.

  Huh, the Aether was absorbed into the bone. I guess I can’t use that little Aether to fully open the meridian. Let’s try again. This time I pulled out about half as much Aether as I had used on my breath meridian. As I pulled the Aether from my center, I focused on the leading edge, trying to watch it get absorbed. I was fascinated as I sensed the bone thickening, growing stronger and tougher. As the rush of Aether poured through the joints, a loud series of pops echoed out from me from every joint in my back. It was so loud that it startled me out of my meditation. Sheepishly, I looked around, only to blush at Jamila’s incredulous stare.

  “Are you okay?” She asked. I blushed deeper. Gah, why do I keep getting flustered! Stupid puberty!

  “Umm, yeah. I’m okay. Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to disturb you. I can leave if you’d like?” I said.

  “No, you’re welcome to stay. There aren’t enough pavilions to keep one all to myself.” She replied, somewhat hurriedly. Huh, she’s blushing.

  “Thanks. I’ll try not to disturb you again.” I was still enamored by her looks. I’ll get to know her better on the walk back to the dorms. Now isn’t the time to talk. I took a couple of deep breaths and centered myself again.

  I focused my attention back on the spinal meridian. Huh, after that initial rush, it looks like the bone is not absorbing Aether. Oh wait, there went one mote in. The rate of absorption is much lower. It’s like there were a bunch of open holes in the material, and all the easily accessible ones got filled. Now only a few holes are left open, and it’s random chance that has motes of Aether grab onto them. Maybe that is why people at higher levels are stronger, as the higher pressure lets the Aether bond better or more completely.

  I wonder... I thought while I reached to grab some Aether and force it into the bones. Some of the Aether I grabbed was absorbed, until I released my will, at which point it popped out. Yup, higher pressure in the Aether will let more absorb into the bones. It needs to be in equilibrium. I can potentially use this. I’d have to be able to push more in really fast, but I could use this to take a hit better. I continued to experiment, discovering that a very tiny amount of Aether stayed in the bones after putting pressure on it, that was similar in amount to the little bit that was absorbed while I was just watching. I can facilitate the extra little absorption, but I’m not sure it is worth the effort. It seems to be logarithmic, with a very large jump at first followed by a sharp decline in the rate of increase. I’ll have to ask Counselor Sila tomorrow about this. Time to work on the next rune.

  I pulled the second to last memory stone out, ready to watch the next rune be drawn. This rune started as a simple e
ight pointed star, with the last stroke being from up to down. This last stroke extended four times as far as the other three. The vertical line was then used to draw out the shape of a sword, with the star as the hilt. Around the tip of the sword, an anvil was drawn, as if the sword was partially inserted into it. Then placed beside the sword on the anvil was a hammer. Interesting, the other types were abstract images, while this one is more concrete. I wonder why?

  After finishing watching the drawing, and the various tiny ways it could fail, I was prepared to spend the next hour working on it. Thankfully, I was able to get the rune drawn in just five tries, though each failure nearly brought me to tears. The pain for erasing a rune was increasing for each rune currently drawn. It’s a good thing that I’m going in reverse order of complexity. If I tried to draw the Lightning rune now, I don’t know if I’d make it.

  Having completed my tasks for the night, I looked around. Seeing that it was still daylight because it was late summer with moderately long days, I decided to gather for a little while. Focusing in on my center again, I breathed deeply and focused, moving Aether with my mind into my center and making it my own. While it was not restful, it was calming. Gathering required intense focus the entire time, or it would not work, and so it helped you to forget worries about tomorrow during that time.

  A slight noise in the pavilion disturbed me out of my focus. I would not have heard it without the enhancing effect on my senses. I looked up and saw Jamila just getting up. It was dark out, with the amazing light show of the Grotto going full swing again. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked her, gesturing at the dancing elemental fireflies and lighted paths.

  “Yes, it is. I saw this last night, so I wanted to stay out again.” She replied.

  “I hope to see the phoenix again.” I said, somewhat wistfully.

  “Phoenix?” She asked.

  “Uh, the beautiful red bird that burst into flames. I heard they were called phoenixes.” I said hastily. Stop using earth words!

  “Oh, the Crimson Zarorzel. Yes, it is beautiful, and I heard it was a level five Elemental Beast. Maybe someone will bond with it, though I’ve heard they are notoriously hard to bond with.” She said with a questioning look in her eyes. I could tell she didn’t want to ask me about ‘phoenixes’ but was curious about who told me the strange, wrong name.

  She followed next to me as we walked back to the dorms. “Uh… so, what does your family do?” I asked awkwardly, reliving my clumsy high school conversations. “If you want to tell me, that is.” I hurriedly said afterward, internally cringing. I thought I was over this!?

  “No, it is okay. My father is a baker down on Navale Lane. I used to cook with him along with my younger sister. We would sell the bread and rolls we made to the dockyard workers. It has only been two days, and I have already started to miss the smell of rolls baking in the morning.”

  As she was talking, the Crimson Zarorzel flew by. “You are right.” She said in wonder, “it is a beautiful bird.” As she said this, the Zarorzel turned to look at me and landed. It looked at me curiously, nodded strangely, and then it flew away again.

  “That was interesting.” I said cautiously. “I wonder what they eat.”

  “You should ask the cooks in the morning, maybe they would know. Or your Beasts instructor.” Jamila said helpfully. “Oh, I must be going quickly, I have to attend my reading lesson. It is held in the dorm lounge on the first floor.” With a sly look at me, she said, “I will race you,” and immediately took off running.

  “What, hey!” I shouted and ran after her. She beat me back to the dorms. As she reached the door, she turned and gave me a smirk before heading inside. In the first floor lounge, I saw a group of people seated in a circle, with a fourth tier student near the front. Jamila sat in the back of the circle, picking up a book that had been left for her. The fourth tier student nodded to her and she said “Now that you are all here, we can begin. We will be going over the letters we use and their sounds, and putting them into words to start with. Go back to the third page in your book.”

  Half the kids began turning pages. I noticed that Jamila was the only one without a partner. As I looked on, the instructor called out “You, by the door. Can you read? Yes, good, partner with Jamila there. She is the only one without a partner and learning to read is faster with another. Come now.” The instructor gestured imperiously. Jamila turned and smiled at me. I walked over and sat down next to her, working through the reading book slowly. After an hour had passed, we had made it through the alphabet and were working on simple spelling. The instructor called the end of the class and Jamila looked up at me and blushed.

  “Thank you for your help, Aiden. Um, would you be willing to come back tomorrow night at the same time to help?”

  “Sure. I’m glad that I was able to help. See you tomorrow.” I said as we stood up. Her room was on the first floor, so she said “Good night,” as she walked to the door into the girls half of the building. I walked up to my room floating on a cloud. Gah, stupid youthful infatuation! I thought, though she is really nice and pretty. Whelp, puberty, you win again!

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  After breakfast with my group of friends, we headed to the classrooms. We walked in, bowed to the Mentors, and took our seats waiting for class to start. Over the next couple of minutes, everyone finished trickling in, and Counselor Sila stood up. “Good morning students. Today we will finish opening your major meridians of both legs. After you have opened your leg meridians, search for others that are easily openable. You should know how many are available from the entrance exam. Come see me if you forgot. If you are having difficulty finding them, talk to the Mentors or myself. After finding more meridians to open, or not, and speaking with one of us, you are free to go. Tomorrow we will be starting to work on channeling and gathering techniques since you will be ready for them. Most techniques we teach require the five major meridians to be open, at least. Are there any questions?”

  “Sir, is there a limit to the amount of Aether absorbed into the areas around a meridian?” I asked, rehashing the question from last night.

  “Yes, though everyone’s limit is slightly different. Over time, the materials that make up your body will become saturated with Aether and no more will absorb into them. Each time you increase in level, this limit is raised as well, and is one of the reasons that those at higher gathering levels are stronger.” Counselor Sila explained. “Additionally, each meridian that connects to the same portion of your body, like the Life meridian and the Right Arm meridian both connect to the right lung increase the limit for that part. Again, more meridians are better. Any other questions?”

  Brett then asked, “Are we going to work on the meridians that are partially blocked and openable with alchemy soon.”

  “Ah, good question. Not during your first tier. While having more meridians open at each level improves the benefit you receive from them, the side effects of alchemically opening a meridian are detrimental if done before you have started to compress Aether into a liquid. Once you have advanced past the Starting Aether Compression level, then we will begin to open the rest of your meridians.”

  “Thank you Counselor.” No one else asked any questions, and so we got started. The Counselor and Mentors were watching us, making sure that nothing went wrong. I focused down, as I had done six times already, and found the two meridians. I opened them one after the other, watching the rush of Aether be absorbed into the bones and muscles of my legs and lower torso. Get a little more Aether in there and I’ll have a six pack, I thought to myself because the left leg meridian also connected to my abs.

  After finishing opening up my leg meridians, I began to search for more meridians to open. I started feeling around the sides of my center again and found one meridian that went straight out to my chest, along the path I had used to make the shield a couple days ago. This one was strange. It just hit the top of my chest and seemed to vanish. I tried feeling around for it, but to no avail. A little l
ater, I found another one just like it that went to my back, directly opposite to it. That is weird, not sure what that one is doing.

  The next meridian I found turned into three when the meridian went to my heart, circled through every chamber and around, before returning to my center. Two meridians split off from my heart meridian, one going through the left side of my body in every blood vessel, and one in the right. They went through every single artery, vein, and capillary in my body. That’s amazing! Following this one, I can see my whole body. It’s almost like following a 3D MRI inside me!