[CYA] Chapter 102: Fifth Time's the Charm

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<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Classroom>

Alex nodded to himself and smiled before moving to the center of his little meditation room. This time he didn’t sit on the provided pillow. Following some instinct and sense from his growing understanding of the technique, he remained standing.

As he stood—beginning the formation of his circulation technique—the vortex in his torso had better alignment with his legs, and the mana in his hips and thighs began to circulate lazily as well.

He calmed his breathing, falling back into box-breathing and meditation, closing his eyes and focusing deeply.

It took him barely five minutes to reestablish the pattern in his right arm, allowing him to focus on the next steps.

His musings were now thoughts rather than words, as he worked through what was ahead. I just need to get the influence of the tornado to go lower… I need to draw the spinning mana down.

He couldn’t do that with so much mana already pooling in his legs. That thought made him grin, and he began to pull the mana up through the center of his right leg, keeping it away from the outsides.

As soon as that mana began flowing upward, the mana on the outside began being drawn down, keeping its spiral motion and creating a bit of an inversion of the paths he’d laid out in his right arm, meaning the mana spiraled while moving away from his center before being pulled straight back. His right arm shot straight out before spiraling back.

It wasn’t perfect, and he had to nudge, prod, and cajole, but in less than ten minutes, he had the circulation working almost on its own.

The downward spiral created both a negative pressure that drew mana upward, but the very mana moving downward created increased positive pressure in his feet that drove the mana upward as well.

He grinned when the notification fired off again, modified this time.

Notice:
Portions of an advanced mana circulation technique detected:
Vortices of Power

Vortices of Power
This advanced mana circulation technique readies your mana, scours your body, and purifies the core of your being.

You have completed 3/6ths of this technique.

System assistance is available to complete the establishment of this technique, but the benefits will be commensurately reduced and detractions increased.

Sometimes it is better to accept a portion of something good rather than failing to achieve something greater.

Do you wish to accept System assistance to adopt this circulation technique?
Y/N

Alex grinned almost manically without conscious thought. 3/6th, not ½.

He’d been right.

He ignored the updated pros and cons which he felt that he could have called up, said ‘No’, and surged ahead.

Five minutes later, the left leg was done to match the right, and the notice triggered again, simpler this time.

Notice:
The majority of an advanced mana circulation technique detected:
Vortices of Power

Vortices of Power
You have completed 4/6ths of this technique.

Do you wish to accept System assistance to adopt this circulation technique?
Y/N

Apology Tutorial Notice:
Many powerful factions under the System have paid heavily to have this assistance offered for various techniques. Each offer costs them, more so if it is accepted.

Do with this information what you will.

Alex’s eyes widened slightly, snapping open in shock. The realization caused him to once again drop the technique he was building. His now outward focus showed him things that kept him from trying to catch the vanishing threads of the circulation to spin back up.

He was drenched in sweat. It was pouring off of him to an almost comical degree, yet the room felt cold to his senses.

His Basic Mana Sense indicated that the mana in the room was gently swirling around him in obvious parody of his tornado.

The blood donation nurse was standing in the doorway, clearly watching both him and the hallway outside as he stood beside Laura. When the man saw Alex’s eyes open, he smiled. “You’re not done, don’t give up. No one will bother you.”

Alex gave him a confused look, but the man just shook his head.

“That’s all I have to say. I don’t think I’ll be able to answer any questions. Finish. From what little I know, you’re close, even if you can’t cross the final hurdle today.”

Alex nodded, closing his eyes and forcing his breathing back under his control. Videogame logic. The man was effectively giving him notice from the System.

That in mind, Alex was more sure than ever in his answer. NO.

He refused the assistance offered. With the Apology Tutorial Addendum—as well as the non-Initiate’s words—he now saw that for the trap that it was. It seemed like a way for powerful factions to safeguard ‘their’ techniques from people who might otherwise achieve them on their own.

Despite his fatigue, he pressed onward, reestablishing the cycle in his torso, right arm, and legs.

That done, he moved on. His head went almost identically to his legs, leaving just his left arm.

He almost said ‘No’ to the next notice, which offered assistance, without even looking at it, but something within him screamed that this was different. Moreover, his years of schooling rebelled at the very idea of answering an important question without verifying he understood it. His professional experience backed that up as well, so he focused in on the notification.

Notice:
An advanced mana circulation technique detected:
Vortices of Power

Vortices of Power
You have completed 5/6ths of this technique.

Are you sure you do not want to accept System assistance to adopt this circulation technique?
Y/N

He growled, the mana around him somehow thrumming in time with his irritation. This one was reversed, flipping the ‘correct’ answer in an attempt to catch out unwary mana users at the last moment.

He blessed Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Lewis—along with a myriad of his other teachers growing up—who had all drilled into his head the need to thoroughly read a question before he answered it.

Yes. I am sure I want to do it on my own.

The notice vanished, and Alex soothed himself, just in time to notice the same ick that he’d dealt with before all across his body… well, everywhere but on his left arm.

Moreover, he was spent, and even with so little left, he knew that he couldn’t finish that night.

He sighed. It seemed that it was shower time once again. Even so, and despite Laura’s clear disgust at his smell and ick, Alex had a little spring in his step.

He was almost there.

The next day, he was back at it. With the blood-drive nurse’s words still in his head. Frank, his name was Frank.

With Frank’s words in his head—effectively giving the System’s sanction on his path forward—Alex chose to dive back into mana circulation first thing that morning, tackling the problem fresh instead of making more of his increasingly silly seeming, strengthened wooden shingles.

By this point, it was reasonably easy to build up the technique. It was still time consuming, and it took him a bit more than an hour of meditative effort to get back to his 5/6ths complete state. From there, he dismissed the notification—a repeat for once—again making sure to say that ‘Yes’ he was sure he wanted to do it on his own.

He grinned, feeling a bit giddy as he focused on his left arm. This final limb was a bit trickier, given it wasn’t along the rotational axis of the tornado like his head and legs, nor was it placed to have power thrown down it like his right arm.

Still, with what he’d learned on the rest of himself, the solution was almost glaringly obvious.

He compressed the mana toward the center, drawing it out and into the tornado, using the tornado's spin to draw it faster and more forcefully.

Then, he peeled off a stream for the top edge of his torso vortex, threading that down the length of his left arm, keeping it to the outside in a clockwise spiral.

The final piece fell into place almost effortlessly, just as many things with long hours of practice and innumerable attempts leading up to them often do.

His entire body seemed to resonate, the mana in the room around him briefly shining before it was pulled inward, joining his circulating power.

An amazingly welcome notice appeared, and he quickly saw that it was an unrestricted acknowledgement of what he’d done.

Notice:
An advanced mana circulation technique detected:
Vortices of Power

Vortices of Power
This advanced mana circulation technique readies your mana, scours your body, and purifies the core of your being.

Pros:
Your technique will be self-sustaining.
Mana regeneration rate is increased by a factor of 10.
All long range castings through your right arm are amplified by 50%.
All close range castings used through any other portion of your body are 50% more effective.
Reduction of impurities from the core of your body will increase your Physical Fortitude, Agility, and Power by 20%

Cons:
Other practitioners of this technique may be able to sense it within you, just as you may be able to sense it within them.
This could lead to a sense of comradery or hostility, depending on extenuating factors. In extreme cases, they may attack you upon detecting this technique to remove the stain of one outside of their organization practicing it.

You have been warned.

Do you wish to adopt this circulation technique?
Y/N

Even as he tried to read it, he realized that something about maintaining the pattern in his whole body at once was vastly harder than even the 5/6th complete technique had been. As such, he didn’t have the cognizance to process the details. Worse yet, he knew that he couldn’t maintain the technique on his own any more than a moment or two longer.

He verified that there wasn’t a trap in the confirmation—and that one of the pros was making the technique self-sustaining—said “Yes”, and collapsed in relief as his mana seemed to settle into the pattern, his active effort no longer required.

A moment later, the feel of the mana moving through his body gained an odd… pressure to it? No, that wasn’t right. It was more like putting a vacuum against his hand.

A powerful suction was acting throughout his whole body, and there was an odd feeling throughout, like the slow pulling of a hair from an infected pore.

He groaned, trying to bear through the strangely uncomfortable, painful, oddly euphoric sensation. If he were being honest with himself, he probably would have stopped the technique at that point if he were able to.

He wasn’t.

“Alex? Are you alright?” It was Leanne. As Ben had been on duty when Alex started, he assumed that they must have just switched. It really hadn’t been long enough to be far into the next block of time. That thought flitted through his mind for barely a second before the totality of whatever was occurring came to a head.

With an almost audible pop, whatever it was tore free of him. The ick, which he’d had to clean up each time previously, seemed to launch free of his body in hitherto unexperienced quantities.

Leanne squealed, falling back and starting to splutter. “Ack! Ick! That went in my mouth!”

The sound of running footsteps came from the hallway as Alex collapsed sideways in exhaustion. He opened his eyes in time to see Ben skid to a halt just outside the door. “What’s going on? I heard screaming and… What. The. Actual. Tamales?”

Leanna was spitting almost continuously even as she scraped black ick away from her eyes. “He exploded, and it got in my mouth!”

Ben’s face shifted from concern to an expression of barely contained humor.

She clearly saw, even around the nastiness in her eyes, because she held up one blackened finger, glaring at the man. “Don’t. Just… don’t.”

He opened his mouth regardless, clearly intent on teasing her despite her protestation, but then the stench seemed to reach him, and he retched, barely seeming to keep his gorge down. “Fine. Fair. Alex! Shower, now.”

Alex groaned.

Leanne stood, moving past Ben, who pulled back to avoid touching her. “You’re back on duty. I’m going to go get clean.” She spat again grumbling under her breath. “If I even can.”

Ben coughed, retching, covering his mouth, and plugging his nose. “Alex? Come on, man. I’m not carrying you. Cleaning this room is already going to be awful…”

Alex groaned again, then pushed himself to his knees, breathing heavily as he looked at his nearly entirely black arms and hands.

Were they… spindlier than they had been? No, that was ridiculous. More importantly, he really did need to get clean now.

He knew from his past experiences that the substance was like tar, and after it dried it was harder than ever to deal with. Thankfully, some soaps seemed to be effective. One of the non-Initiates had mentioned a special cleaner that they’d heard of for really nasty clean ups… Crystal something? Crystal Clean?

The name didn’t actually matter though, because apparently there wasn’t any around. It was seemingly exceedingly hard to get, or so the custodian who had mentioned it in passing had said.

So, not useful, Alex. Focus.

He pushed himself up and found it rather easy, despite the weariness he felt.

“That’s right. Come on, Alex. Let’s get you to the showers so you can… maybe remove your top layer of skin to get all of that off of you?”

Alex shook his head, feeling the odd stretching and pulling that indicated that the gunk was already drying. “Yeah… let’s hurry.”

Twenty minutes later, he had given up his clothes as an entirely lost cause, and he was feeling utterly raw.

His hair had been through so many washes of harsh soap that he’d been surprised it hadn’t taken on the consistency of straw. Even so, he ended up shaving it all off, as it just wouldn’t get clean of the gum-like ick.

He’d even had to shave his eyebrows, resulting in a look that he did not like in the least.

Beyond that, he had discovered that his body had gone through a radical transformation.

First, he felt amazing. His every movement felt powerful and smooth, and he attributed that to the 20% boost to his physical stats. That was austensibly due to the removal of that gunk from his system, whatever it had been. His understanding was that it really couldn’t be anything physical, so he chalked it up to metaphysical mumbojumbo.

That brought him to the second thing he noticed. He was visibly emaciated. He didn’t look like Stephen, but neither did he look like a body builder, despite his well defined musculature now in stark evidence.

In that vein, he was ravenously hungry. He’d even been stuffing jerky in his mouth around all his cleaning, pulling it straight into there from his Inventory whenever he could.

Even still, that had barely taken off the edge of his hunger.

He was getting dangerously low on clothing, but he still did have a set to put on once he was entirely sure there was no more of the gunk in his cracks or crevices.

He came out to find Ben waiting for him, and the big man immediately burst out laughing.

Alex sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his hairless brows, trying to banish the beginnings of a headache. “Laugh it up, Ben. See if I help you when you go through this.”

That stopped the laughter hard. “What now?”

“If you actually succeed in acquiring and establishing a mana circulation technique, I think that this will happen to you, or at least something like it.”

Ben grimaced for a moment before shrugging and chuckling again. “I think I’ll be able to get clean enough to not have to go full cue-ball.”

Alex shrugged in turn. “Keep telling yourself that.”

The larger man only hesitated a moment before shaking his head and grinning once more at Alex’s expense. “Where to now?”

“Food.” Alex’s stomach grumbled loudly in clear agreement. “So much food, and I need to talk to the others. I want to tell them what I learned.”

“Then right this way, good sir. I was to tell you that Kaylee wanted to see you anyways. She and some others are waiting for you in the caffeteria.”

Alex gave him a flat look. “And you were going to tell me this… when?”

“Right then. It seemed like the right time.”

He sighed. “Fine, fine. Let’s go.”

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