“What do I need to do?” Blake asked.

  For one thing, to not be completely dependent on me, Ethbin replied.

  “Okay, ring.” Blake shook his head and rolled his eyes. “But like, you’re the one who guided me here. I’m willing to learn.”

  And I cannot tell you directly, or you’ll put me to sleep, and we’ll have to waste time that you could be using to get yourself into a sect. Nevermind that we’re running out of time until some of Svarikson’s thugs find you.

  Blake nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” He walked around the edge of the pond until he reached the floating flowers, then reached out and pulled one closer with his staff. He didn’t want to rip the flower out, only take the fruit growing at the tip of its pistil. It wasn’t exactly how most fruits functioned, but then again, most fruits didn’t grow as fancy little orbs of…energy?

  It’s a spirit fruit, Ethbin said. Brimming with pre-processed mana, and perfect for a regular cultivator to ingest.

  Blake scrunched his eyebrows. “I can’t use mana.”

  Not for a technique. That is the challenge.

  He figured he wasn’t going to get much more of an answer from Ethbin, so instead, he focussed on plucking the fruits. Once he had all three orbs in his hand, he played with them and shook them a little. They were slightly gelatinous, with a flexible outer shell that wobbled whenever they moved. He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d find inside, but it looked like raw mana. Beyond the golden coating, there were shimmers of turquoise inside.

  But what to do with it?

  The knowledge components of stage four and stage five of Honour Condensation were ‘Honour Envisioning’ and ‘Meridian Envisioning’ respectively. Figuring out where the meridians were, seeing the individual channels in his mind. Mana could help with illuminating the channels.

  But how could he complete stage five before stage four?

  You do not have to advance through all the stages in the same perfect order, Ethbin said. It’s a suggestion, and typically, the knowledge builds upon itself. For example, there’s no sense in trying to master your willpower when your breathing techniques are all over the place. But if you can envision your channels before you can envision the Honour, then more power to you. Many of your abilities work on your capacity to envision what you want to accomplish. Improving your mind’s eye is an important component of Condensation.

  “My abilities? Like, kung fu space viking magic as a whole?”

  It’s not magic.

  “Yeah, sure it isn’t.”

  Regardless, he was starting to get the picture. He plucked up one of the spirit fruits, then, wincing, tossed it into his mouth.

  The outside was bitter, but that was because it’d accumulated a layer of dirt from his hands. As soon as he bit down, and the insides leaked out, a sweet syrup filled his mouth. It was cold on his tongue, and he swallowed, gulping it down as quickly as he could. It was too sweet, and it almost made him want to retch.

  As soon as the liquid hit his stomach, it swirled around in a vortex. The physical syrup storing the mana stayed in place, and the arcane energy entered his flesh. It never left his perception. He could follow it with his mind, even if it was regular mana.

  He’d gotten used to tracking regular mana once it was inside him. He couldn’t exactly say what regular mana looked like in his channels.

  But this was about more than mana. He pushed it. He followed with his mind, seeing where it wanted to go. The vortex seeped out into the channels around his stomach, then sent surges of power racing down toward his siphon.

  It was incompatible, now. His siphon had gotten used to drawing on Honour in the past few days. But the mana still surged around, trying to condense around his siphon.

  It lit the siphon in his mind. He saw it clearly, now. A circular gate, an aperture that opened and closed with a rhythm. That wasn’t how it was supposed to look, not for the mana or qi or whatever these cultivators were going to call it. But it needed to be different to draw on Honour.

  There was a luminous echo of himself on the other side of the gate. It mirrored his every movement, in a completely different and empty plane of existence. It shone with white flame, a ghostly wireframe.

  His mind knew in an instant: that was his Honour. Or…a manifestation of it that he carried with him. That was the endless sea that he drew from.

  He wrenched his mind back into the real world. “I saw it,” he said. “The siphon, I saw it.”

  I know, Ethbin replied. Keep going. Now envision your channels.

  Blake nodded. “Understood.”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  He ate the second and third fruits at once. Next, he was pretty sure he needed to envision all the channels.

  “Now…wait a moment,” Blake muttered. “I’m not supposed to eat a spirit fruit before I’ve opened all my meridians, right?” He winced, knowing he’d already eaten three…

  That’s just a suggestion, Ethbin replied. You’re not keeping the mana. You could, however, illuminate the channels and the blockages you need to clear. Opening your meridians is the next step, after all.

  Having consumed the two fruits at once, there was now a tornado of mana in his gut. His body wasn’t taking it in easily, and his siphon was rejecting it. Especially now that he could properly envision the siphon.

  He let his siphon reject it. It repelled the mana, propelling it through his channels.

  His muscle and skin meridians were completely open. No problems there. It circulated out through his body, taking a route around the outside of him. He didn’t consciously use a technique, though the presence of mana tended to make you a little stronger naturally.

  You’ve been very active, and you’ve kept yourself in good shape. A few scars here and there, but for the most part, your muscle and skin meridians are fine. Use them as a starting point to direct the mana inward.

  It didn’t obey him very well. Mana never did. He relied on the whipping vortex to push it, and let the mana act how it wanted to act. Wherever it passed, his perception of the channel lit up with a tingle, and even when the mana was gone, he still held an impression of the channel’s presence in his mind.

  Then it began to pop. The harder he tried to push the mana, the more it resisted. The more it strained his channels. As he tried to push it deeper into his body, into his organs and other channels, it stopped. It penetrated only a few centimeters before running up against what felt like a brick wall. Pushing harder made the brick walls hurt.

  But this kind of thing always hurt, right? He was alright with that. He clenched his teeth, inhaled sharply, and braced for something.

  A spear of pain rocketed through his body, making his bones tremble and his mind surge. His arms spasmed, and he fell hard onto his back. He wasn’t even sure what he’d hit or what caused it, but his limbs were shaking for a few seconds, and uncontrollably.

  Alright, alright, that’s enough, Ethbin said. More than enough. Don’t push it.

  After a few seconds, Blake grunted, then said, “What was that?”

  Your blockages are…extreme. But nothing that can’t be overcome. After a few seconds, Ethbin added, Though, not with mana. We’ll do it with Honour, and we’ll do it methodically over a few days. You’ll want to expel the mana, now.

  “How?”

  Well, we could wait a day, and your Honour-attuned siphon would probably be upset enough. You’d puke it out.

  “That would be a massive waste of rations,” Blake said.

  Indeed. I need you to expel it out through your hands, then. It’s not a proper technique on its own, but being able to conduct an energy outside your body is an important first step to many future techniques. Especially Shaping and Smite techniques. Normally, it would take a cultivator weeks to figure it out, but they are learning as young children, and they don’t have their skin and muscle meridians open.

  Blake grimaced. He knew he was pretty far behind. But now was the time to catch up.

  He guided the mana to his hands, pushing it through only the muscle meridians, until he had most of it concentrated in his hands. Already, it was shifting from turquoise to an oily black, and it didn’t want to obey him at all.

  He transmitted it out into the skin of the palm of his hand. He was trying to eject the mana out of himself? He concentrated on the exact same feeling he’d gotten when Svarikson had Harvested him. The suction, the mana leaving him. Instead of just pushing it, he guided it with a goal in mind.

  The mana listened. At first, the remnants of the turquoise mana spilled out the palms of his hands, then the black tar followed. As it left his skin, it seeped out invisible pores, then hissed into a vapour. The sight made him shudder, but soon, it was gone. Nothing more than a cloud of black mist in front of him. The cloud crackled slightly, and a bolt of tiny black lightning popped through the center before the cloud disappeared.

  Very good, Ethbin said. Blake could feel, somehow, that the ring meant it.

  “So…” Blake rubbed his head. “How does this help me?”

  A couple points. You’ve now fully envisioned your siphon and Honour Echo, so you know where you’re always pulling the Honour from. It should flow smoother and more readily in a fight. Second, you’ve envisioned the meridians. You’ll need all your channels open for any cycling technique worth its contribution points, though, so opening them will be our next step. In fact, there are many steps, and you will need a technique slate if you’re ever to finalize the technique.

  “What do you mean?”

  I’m a voice in your head. I cannot show you these things without a…visual guide. So you will need to get a slate from a sect library. But there’s good news.

  “Oh?”

  The good news is that now, you know how to condense Honour. Which means that, as we scour the wilds, searching for something to help you hide what you are, learning to open your meridians, you’ll be able to develop your Honour Sea. You’ll cross condensation thresholds and climb the stages.

  Blake nodded. “I, uh…noticed I got stronger when I condensed a little Honour,” he said. He flexed his fingers. The strength he’d felt while fighting the fiend was still there. “Permanently.”

  Yes. Condensing the Honour sea—or mana sea, for that matter—will provide you a permanent boost to your base…abilities. It’s not as big of a leap as Body Tempering, but you are working with vital energies necessary for life. You will always find yourself growing slightly stronger.

  “So what I’m hearing is that I need to keep hunting, and keep condensing an Honour sea like I did before, until I have a way of hiding what I am from a sect? And while we’re at it, I’ve gotta try envisioning the Honour itself and opening some meridians?”

  Correct. And then we will go looking for a sect.

  Blake liked the plan. At least, liked knowing the plan. “But once I dry off a little. I didn’t kill that fiend for nothing.”

  He sat up on the embankment for a few minutes, fidgeting. He took his socks off and tried to dry them, but it didn’t help, and they stank. The fiend’s body was still there, though it slowly sank into the muck. Something about it put a damper on his mood. It was a constant reminder of everything they’d lost in the Integration.

  After a few more minutes, he decided he couldn’t stay here, with the fiend sitting right there. He kicked the fiend’s body for good measure, spat on it, then marched off into fog.