Chapter 550 - Unexpected Breakthroughs

The next day found Eric meditating in his favorite garden spot at the crack of dawn, doing his absolute best to feel the disparate flows of Spiritual Energy tingle against his peripheral meridians, even if his ridiculously clogged major meridians didn’t feel their passage at all.

He suppressed the sharp spike of dismay.

He wasn’t here to regret that which he might have lost… that which he had had no choice but to sacrifice, in order to raise an army of 3 million and put his old man DOWN!

No.

He was here to coax at least one more peripheral strand to line up like a straw and drink deep of the coruscating streams of Spiritual Energy flowing along their carefully delegated channels. To savor the gloriously refreshing tingle of a yet another hair-thin channel coming to vibrant life and filling his hungry frame with an ever growing stream of delicious Qi.

“How are you feeling this morning, Eric?” Hanna softly asked, a surprised yet pleased lilt to her voice when footsteps revealed another presence coming forward.

“I’m so glad you could join us today, love.”

“And I thought I was getting here early,” Louise huffed.

Eric smirked. “Never too early for ice cream.”

“We’re not having ice cream for breakfast.”

“Maybe you’re not. But I’m most certainly rewarding myself with a bowl, or maybe a gallon, if I can get another peripheral singing the happy Qi song. Right, aunty?”

Hanna chuckled, her eyes twinkling with good humor. “Sure, Eric. You may have as much ice cream as you like… so long as you and your sister both unlock at least one peripheral meridian.”

Louise blinked in surprise. “No way. If only I could!”

Eric’s eyes popped open, mind racing as his bubbly brain thought chaotic, reckless thoughts.

“Deal. So, who’s up for forming a party with me?”

Hanna gave Eric a curious look for long moments. “Does this involve blood magic?”

Eric dipped his head. “My own non-System version? Yes. It most definitely does.”

Louise scowled. “Wait, isn’t that one of those System powers that dad talked about?” She shuddered. “I still get the creeps, thinking about those ‘wormies’ you mentioned.

“Me too. And you’ll note I specifically said non-System version.”

Hanna’s scowl turned to a thoughtful stare, making Eric quickly regret his early flippant offer.

“Do you think it will help?”

Eric took a deep, thoughtful breath, before letting in out. “Honestly? Yes. I do. It’s how I communed with my kung fu brother when we were both trapped in a mystic realm… though you might not count it as such, seeing as it was all in System-dominated space. Still, it was to us, and we also had a cultivation manual to guide us, which, again, might actually have been a System-enhanced tool in territory where the Spiritual Energy realm is compressed in ways it totally isn’t here. But all that waffling aside, it’s possible that if Louise and I are connected to you while you’re cycling Qi through your peripherals… that we might be able to sense at least a few of our own meridian threads and line them up so that they too fill with the Qi currents reaching their peak as they channel through the garden.”

Hanna’s features hardened… before thawing with a barely concealed look of longing. it said something about just how worried Hanna was for her child, just how desperate she was to open a path that wouldn’t make her dependent on ruthless cultivators that might hold a generational grudge above… cultivators that had already slighted Louise at least once before, dismissing her as talentless... that Hanna actually nodded her head.

“I’m trusting you with my most precious treasure, Eric.”

Eric solemnly nodded, humbled by her trust. “I understand. I won’t need to mark either of you. Just take my hands… and pull free the moment you’re uncomfortable or choose to.”

Louise paled. “Your hands are now wet with blood.”

“Just a few drops worth,” Eric conceded. “I can summon it through my pours or reclaim it at will.”

Hanna gave him a pointed look. “Just how highly ranked is your blood magic skill?”

Eric flashed a bemused smile. “Assuming that the number even means anything to you, My Blood Mastery is Rank 38.”

Hanna gazed at him for long seconds. “Eric?”

“Yes?”

“My husband has Rank 20 or so in a handful of skills, and he is fiercely proud of them. And I know how he fights not to dip through the jump gate to Prolus IV and update his character sheet since he last checked, 20 years ago.”

“Oh.”

Louise’s eyes widened. “And you’re Rank 38? Do the ranks get easier to achieve as you level them up, like in a table-top game?”

Hanna shook her head. “According to your father, they get harder. Much harder. And very few classers have the knack to actually use their level-up points to push skill ranks higher. Only on newly ascending worlds can most manage the feat... or if they’re Contenders from such a world.”

“Oh.”

“Like I was and am!” Eric said brightly. “So let’s just say I foolishly splurged a few levels worth of points in this odd, esoteric skill. Now, with that settled, knowing that I should at least be skilled enough to let us all come back to ourselves none the worse for ware… who’s up for joint cultivation?”

Much to Eric’s surprise, after the look she had given him, Hanna dipped her head. “Very well, Eric. I guess we’re in your care.”

Eric winced at the frightened look Louise gave him as her slender hand gripped his own. “No pressure.”

“None at all,” Hanna quipped. “Rather, relax. Relax and open your mind’s eye and see my meridians for yourselves. See the way the Qi all around us flows past and caresses them. Sense as best you can how my peripherals saturate with and cycle the natural energy all around us, wicking away the waste and debris that is mortal existence. With the cleansing of that waste, we all become cleaner, healthier, closer to our own immortal potential.”

Eric allowed the words to wash over him, ignoring the surprisingly intense stream of interface messages washing over him as well.

He just closed his eyes and allowed himself to sink in warm spiritual currents, undulating with the ebb and flow of Hanna’s words.

He felt almost as if he were floating in warm salty waters. Crimson waters. Sensing his own soul buoyed up in those currents, and Hanna and Louise’s as well.

Yet what got his heart pounding… pounding so loudly that he was almost pulled out of that trans-like state, was that he could sense them.

He could finally sense them!

Dozens off peripherals.

Scores of them.

He couldn’t see them clearly… not quite yet. But he could feel how they displaced the currents all around him.

He could feel how Hanna’s words resonated through the space around them, distorted by his channels… how the river of Wood Qi flowed right past his peripherals, how they splayed themselves out like octopedian limbs drifting lazily through the water.

It was with a sense of dazed bemusement that he imagined himself as that giant octopus, responsible for the sinewy motions of those meridian tendrils.

And it was with a sharp sense of profound wonder that they actually began to obey, as one peripheral slowly straightened itself out to fully be taken up by the stream of Wood Qi current enhanced by the carefully grown Copperthorns sharing space upon corn stalks with the beans. He allowed that current to claim a meridian strand he then did his utmost to imagine relaxing… relaxing to the point that the micro pours all over it opened themselves up, allowing the accumulated mortal waste to slip free as it filled with delicious Spiritual Energy which served to draw out ever more toxins from his body as Eric claimed yet another peripheral meridian channel. Then a second… and a third.

By that time his exquisitely honed perception began to waver and grow fuzzy, his communion with the scores of peripherals flowing about his psyche and soul became a disjointed headache, he knew their training session had come to an end. And when he sensed the slightest of nudges from Hanna… he didn’t hesitate to gently release his grip before carefully grasping his foster sister’s confused soul and plopping it in the correct direction, right back into her body as Louise popped awake, tears of joy in her eyes.

“Mom! I did it! I feel it! I feel the Qi spiraling through me!”

Eric closed his eyes and slumped back upon the sympathetic squash leaves in exhausted relief, silently promising himself that he would keep a very, very careful eye on Louise from that point on, and maybe they should never do that again.

Because her soul had almost popped right out of her body, like a disoriented swimmer diving down the wrong way.

“That’s wonderful to hear!” Hanna cried out with joyful delight, her calm motherly demeanor cracking into a girl’s excitement as Eric swallowed back a wave of panic.

“What the hell was I doing? That was too fucking close!” He thought to himself before he was jostled by his stepsister’s enthusiastic hug.

“Thank you, Eric. I did it! Thanks to you and mom, I did it! I finally feel the Spiritual Energy that’s all around us. I finally understand what it’s all about!”

“That’s fantastic!” Eric said with a strained smile. “You finally cracked the code. Now, it’s morning meditation all the way!”

Louise gave Eric a concerned frown. “You don’t sound as happy as you should. What’s wrong, Eric?” She flashed a teasing smile. “Did you fail to clear another meridian? I guess the ice cream’s all mine, then.”

Eric chuckled.

Hanna gave him a pointed look. “Eric?”

He gave a thumbs up. “We’re good.”

This earned a snort. “Alright, child. How many?”

“Three.”

Louise’s ebullient mood instantly transformed to a sour glare. “Three.”

“Yup. Three.”

“So all that work I did, overcoming so much anxiety and stress and finally proving to myself that I could do it… and you’re going to take away my second in the sun to show off three cleaned meridians?”

Eric nodded solemnly. “And we know the real reason why you’re upset.”

She crossed her arms and glared. “You can’t possibly appreciate why I’m—”

“Because I get three times the ice cream you do.”

“That’s not how this works, Eric.”

“Forever.”

Her eyes bulged. “That’s ridiculous! Mom, tell him he’s being ridiculous!”

“Sorry,” Eric mimed cupping his ear as he turned around and headed back to the house. “I can’t hear you over the need to fill my belly with delicious ice cream. Laters!”

It was a short time later that a now properly dressed and refreshed Eric, looking quite dapper, Hanna had assured him after presenting him with his custom tailored dark linen pants, white cotton shirt, and silver grey silk vest was riding the train into the city, along with Hanna and the girls. John was off for work, dressed as a corporate professional, though his eyes were those of an elite agent, and Eric really should ask him what he did… while Hanna considered it her duty to accompany her children on what would be the second week of school for Louise and the very first day for himself. But first a curriculum would be made, based on his test scores. Yet most importantly, if Eric understood Hanna’s underlying motive, he’d be in school every assigned day from then on… at least until a certain surprise test was sprung upon the academy students.

A test that nearly all of them, even the most practical minded of students with the next twenty years all planned out for them, was eager to take, no matter how likely they were to fail it.

A test Hanna would do everything she could to make sure Eric never missed. A test Louise was now eager to retake, when she could prove her potential beyond any corrupt appraiser to dismiss.

As for Ella and Maja… Eric smiled down at the pair of girls gazing out the train windows with wide-eyed wonder at the scenery ripping past the high speed rail-line. Transportation that was a hell of a lot more efficient—and far less profitable to certain parties—than highly congested roads filled with cars burning plenty of petrol while moving at a crawl, and making pedestrian life hell. Just as countless special interests back on Earth had done everything in their power to make happen, throughout countless nations across the globe.

Not that any of that mattered any more, Eric thought, already seeing in the distance the towering buildings of glass, steel, and shiny chrome-hued alloys, less than 20 minutes after leaving their beautiful home nestled between suburbs and countryside. Truly, it was as idyllic a living arrangement as anything he could have hoped for.

He blinked back a tear as his heart filled with warmth at the sight of both rolling forests and fields and quaint little towns and the grand, picturesque city they now approached once more, more overjoyed than he could put into words with 12 peripherals now singing with Qi and a Spiritual Energy attribute over thirty again, boosted all the more as he breathed in the Qi-rich air, his belly filled with fare so rich in this world’s wondrous bounty that his muscles positively craved a good workout.

Not that there was any gym anywhere that could possibly cater to his Strength.

“You’re not nervous, are you Eric? It’s okay to be nervous. I was nervous on my first day.”

Eric smiled down at Louise, looking quite cute in her pink skirt and blazer that matched both her irises and the tiny jewel loops she had around her horns. Her permed curls didn’t hide the glossy lipstick and smoky eyeshadow Eric was surprised she had slipped past her mother, no doubt a bit of parental indulgence earned with, what was for her, a remarkable breakthrough.

“Feeling good, little sis. No worries here.”

Louise smirked. “Don’t worry, Eric. I’ll make sure you stay out of trouble at school.”

Eric chuckled. “I guess I’m in your care, then.”

“Just as soon as we get your schedule sorted out,” Hanna interjected, giving Eric a curious tilt of her head. “And your preference is still finance, Eric? I recalled that correctly, yes?”

Eric nodded, no matter the look Louise was giving him.

“What?”

Louise crossed her arms, leather backpack hanging from her left shoulder. “Why? With your physique and cool background… why would you want to spend all day in a boring office? Balancing books or figuring out appropriate loan interest rates, hoping that stompers won’t be wrecking whatever business you were going to invest in? Sounds like a headache to me, bro.”

Eric chuckled. “I agree. That does sound boring as fuck. Good thing that’s not what I plan on doing with it.”

This earned a curious look from his sister.

Eric winked. “Knowledge is power, sis. The first part of wealth is accruing the money, of course. Or enticing investors to put up the capital stake you need for your business venture. But once you entice those suckers—I mean investors, ha ha—or made a nice score, or flipped a property, or sold a spiritual treasure for a fat profit… then it’s about making that initial investment grow faster than living expenses or loan interest fees will shrink it down to nothing. That can be through investing in property or starting a business or loaning out your funds. It depends on your strength and interests.”

Louise blinked. “You sound like you actually know what you’re talking about.”

Eric sighed. “On my home world? Yes. Here? That’s the thing. I don’t really have a clue as to how these things work, here. Not precisely. And with stompers, socially sanctioned mercenaries who can go around and stomp people out of business if they don’t sell out to a bigger bully in the mix… that complicates things. But it seems that people almost welcome that development, or the original offer that can lead to such a development, if they’re given the chance to sell out for a really sweet profit and spin that bigger nest egg into an even more lucrative business. Yeah. All the ins and outs of how to do all that here? I don’t have a fucking clue. Hence, my interest in entrepreneurship and investments and just figuring out how money works here, which seems to be umbrellaed under the catch-all term: ‘Finance Major’. At least it does here.”

Louise frowned. “But wouldn’t you rather be following your passion?”

Eric shrugged. “Sure. Just make sure ‘following your passions’ isn’t code for: get more naive students to follow a sucker’s path leading nowhere while the class elites are putting their noses to the grindstone and take over all the most lucrative industries, professions, and fields. Then fast-forward a decade and watch all those former idealists anxiously submit their resumes to their former classmates’ HR departments, broke and desperate for a real job.

“I mean, maybe it’s not that bad,” he quickly amended to the horrified look Louise was now giving him. “But I have the advantage of understanding just a bit about the flow of money and seeing how it’s all put together. Especially in a big picture way, where someone else worries about the nitty gritty… but maybe that’s a hangup I need to get over myself. The point is, I think I would enjoy empowering myself and learning about how money really works, here on Titan Prime. Because financial power, like raw physical power or cultivation power, is just another path to being able to master one’s environment and better one’s life as a result.”

Louise snorted. “Sorry, Eric. A rich merchant will never be considered better than a powerful body cultivator or a wujen who can master the elements. Especially not here on Titan Prime.”

“I agree one hundred thousand percent!” Eric said with a grin. “But when you think about it, there’s another huge difference in how they persuade and influence.”

“And that would be?”

“A merchant ultimately claims his power through enticement. He effectively bribes you with what you want. What will make you—or what you think will make you—happier. And that’s completely different from the power a cultivator wields.”

Louise frowned at this. “You don’t think idealistic cultivators are heroes eager to make the world a better place?”

A far more cynical Eric gave a careful shrug. “You know what? Maybe they are. But still, at the end of the day, no matter the ideals he espouses, when eager-to-please hero worshipers are out of the picture, the cultivator claims his power through sheer intimidation and force. He doesn’t coax you to surrender your gold or your land or your freedoms in return for beautiful homes, holographic entertainment centers or luxurious meals. He consolidates his power, his influence, through the primal fear of you not wanting your face ripped off if you displease him.”

Louise looked momentarily poleaxed, as if Eric had just shaken her entire worldview.

“He’s not wrong, love,” her mother softly said. “As much as I hate to admit it… as much as we’re taught to despise merchants upon the plateau where I was raised, he’s really not wrong at all.”

“But.. but I thought cultivators were upstanding and righteous!”

Hanna smiled. “They can be, darling. Far more just and upright than many a conniving merchant. But that doesn’t change the fact that as much as righteous cultivators are loved… they are rightfully feared, as well. Whereas the merchant wants to look the farthest thing from threatening, so you’ll feel comfortable perusing his wares and purchasing whatever treasure or trinket suits your fancy, a powerful warrior expects you to fear him. At least enough to respect his way as the right way—his sense of justice is the correct sense of justice—unless you’re strong enough to make him see differently.

Eric chuckled ruefully. “And I don’t mind telling you that for the longest time, I despised merchants. At least the non Blue Faction goblin ones. And I eagerly sought personal power and empowerment above everything else, so that no force on Earth could force my hand, make me their bitch, or tell me what to do.”

His gaze hardened. “And I still live by that philosophy. But I’m also well aware that possessing fearsome power can cause others to fear you dreadfully, and I’d far rather entice the treasures I most desire through lawful trade where everyone feels like a winner… than take it, simply because the owner knows I can rip his face off.”

Louise blinked before barking a laugh, playfully punching his shoulder. “Rip off a lot of faces, have you, bro?”

Eric snorted. “More than I care to admit, as your reformed older brother starting a fresh new chapter of his life.”

Louise paled. “I was kidding. You’re kidding, right?”

“The point, little sis, is that mastering finance lets me charm a kingdom and be treated like a king, or like the faerie prince that I am, ha ha, without having to harm a hair on anyone’s head.”