Ascension of the elder

"IF I CATCH WHOEVER HURT MY SON I WILL FLAY THEM AND ROAST THEM ALIVE."

"Whoa calm down mum. We don't know who did it or what motivated them. Until we have all the information we should move carefully lest we fall into a trap laid by our unseen enemy."

Hearing her son Maria gradually calmed down but she was still breathing hard. No one should hurt a child especially when that child's mother is a powerful and vengeful banshee. Gulping down air Maria turned her sight to her son once again.

"Then how do you think we should proceed?"

It may seem strange that an adult is asking for guidance from an 8 year old child, but Kyle even previously was calm and smarter than the other children his age. His mother wasn't aware but Kyle's maturity was due to having to suffer the bullying of his relatives. It wasn't to the point of physical confrontation as they didn't want to incur the wrath of his parents, however little snide comments and discussions about his lack of progress just loud enough for him to hear can cause a lot of pain to a young child.

"Well first off we need to ensure our protection. In your and fathers case I don't think they will move against you but in my case I think I'll replace the long serving staff with people of my own choice. I'll train these people myself starting with Miranda."

Hearing this Miranda looked between Maria and Kyle as all of this manoeuvring was currently beyond her understanding but she was happy to be able to train and help her master, as his little piece of kindness had cemented her view of him as a kind person in her heart.

"I will do my best master."

Hearing Miranda, Kyle looked over at her and could almost feel the happiness and loyalty radiating from her. Kyle was surprised as he looked at his mother and realised another boon he'd received was a form of empathy or an emotional sense he didn't have before and he could read the strong emotions from people around him. Smiling a little to himself he thought that this new ability would really come in handy. Responding to Miranda, Kyle only said.

"I don't doubt it and thank you."

Returning his attention to his mother, Kyle narrated the next part of his thoughts.

"Secondly I need to gain outside assistance and protection as we don't know the motivation behind this attack. If I can become a guild member or get the support from a guild I think it will give me a degree of protection."

Maria thought on this for a moment. Deciding that what he said made sense as this would limit any direct confrontation for fear of retaliation from the guild, which would only leave indirect methods and hidden attacks which would take time and resources to setup. Maria eventually agreed with Kyle's thought and asked.

"So which guild would you be thinking of joining. I assume it would be the blacksmiths as you were planning on taking the warriors path."

"No due to these new abilities I've gained and some other things I've noticed, I think an array master would fit me more. Also would I be able to get access to any training methods for mage or sorcerer paths that you have."

Looking surprised Maria put a finger to the side of her temple while thinking on the changes in her son.

"Why do you want the training methods for those paths? I do have some basic training methods from the capital, but you know that until you reach the fifth level there isn't much difference."

Until a cultivator reaches the fifth level there isn't much to differentiate between the three paths. However Kyle wanted to analyse the paths from the earliest level to see the differences and if there are methods which lean more to one form or another, it'll make it easier to identify the differences. Kyle already had a good idea of how the power in this world functions but wanted to verify his hypothesis.

"Don't worry mum I have some plans but until I'm ready I don't want to say too much. Also can you not let your master know about this as any communication could be intercepted and this could be a way to strengthen our family."

"Alright dear I won't tell anyone except your father. I'll also get the methods dropped over to you. I currently have four methods for mage foundation but I only have one for sorcerers."

"That's fine mum, I'll leave you to your tea as I need to start sorting out this mess."

"I'll see you later, but come to dinner tonight as we haven't eaten together as a family for quite a while due to your training and your fathers' work."

"Okay I'll see you at dinner."

Turning around Kyle walked through the isolation barrier which his mum deactivated shortly afterwards. Kyle them took Miranda's hand and lead her back to his room. Kyle didn't realise but he'd started leading Miranda by hand when walking together. He didn't think much about this as he still had much of the mentality of his old self so he just thought he was keeping a child from getting lost, but the servants that saw this began gossiping about the young lord's new toy.

Eventually he reached his chambers which were composed of four rooms. The first was a reception room, second was his bedroom, third was his bathroom which was strangely the room he awoke in and lastly was his cultivation room.

Leading Miranda to the cultivation room, he told the young girl to sit down as he would impart the 'Breath of Ares' cultivation method he currently used. After 2 hours Miranda had got the basics of the method down and only needed to practice it to begin her path.

As Miranda started her practice Kyle took her hands and sat opposite her. Extending his soul sight he started checking the process Miranda was going through. Kyle could see the amount of mana in her main channel had started to increase. The flow of mana came from the node in her chest and each cycle of the mobilization method sent a small amount of mana into each of the nodes in her shoulders and hips eventually going back to her chest.

Following the cycle his self. Kyle could see that it had the same effect on him with a small amount of energy entering his nodes. Thinking about this Kyle decided to try an experiment. When Miranda finished the cultivation cycle she was on Kyle halted her and just said.

"During the next cycle when your energy reaches here loop it a few times before releasing it."

Pointing towards the centre of her chest which was the approximate location of the node situated in her chest. Not thinking about it too much Miranda just nodded her head and started the cycle again. Miranda's energy passed through her channels and nodes without disturbing the impurities contained in them like a needle being pushed through butter eventually reaching the node in her chest. Unlike previously when the energy just passed through the node without affecting it in any way, Miranda caused the energy to cycle within the node a few times before leaving.

Looking for any effect on the node Kyle wasn't disappointed as the impurities within this node gradually thinned and there was a little bit of mana left within the node. It may help if you think of the node as containing muddy water. As you add new fresh water the mud gradually dissipates getting thinner and thinner.

Doing this a few more times Kyle could see the mana in the node reached a saturation point and started to breakdown the impurities on its own. As the node started clearing itself it had the effect he had seen before where there was a suction effect pulling in the impurities from the surrounding channels and sub nodes, allowing them to start drawing in mana from the surroundings without issue.

Retrieving his soul sight, Kyle looked at Miranda for any differences. Slowly her consciousness returned opening her eyes she saw Kyle staring at her causing her to go tomato red. Seeing this Kyle could only think 'awww how cute'. He then asked

"So how do you feel?"

"I feel fine, actually better than fine. When you instructed me to cycle my mana like that, it became easier to draw in mana from the air."

This caused Kyle to pause for a second. He then thought of something, if mana is drawn from the air it enters the lungs in the same way as air and the mana must be drawn into the node at that point in the windpipe and by clearing that node it improves the entrance of mana to the system.

"Miranda can you cultivate one more time"

Taking her hands and using his soul sight again, Kyle watched the flow of mana into Miranda's main channel. This flow was much faster than previously and when the mana was cycled again further clearing the node, the flow further increased. And due to the slower and more natural clearing of the node as opposed to his self imposed way of clearing the nodes and channels there was no damage to the cultivators body.

"Eureka!!"