To say that Maik was upbeat on their way to lunch would be untrue. It was more like the feeling you get when you think you just lost the game only to figure out there was still a chance at a comeback, that you were still in the game as a legitimate contender. Yeah. That mix of excitement and determination tempered with anxious energy. Whether it was just the late teen deluding them self as a coping mechanisim after having been bound or from a legitimately upbeat attitude, only time would tell.

  Still, Maik was feeling far more in control now that they had recovered. Having had enough Chi to use some minor healing on them self during the sessions had restored the lilin to optimum condition even after the coaches rough handling earlier that morning. As such Maik wasn't even the slightest bit swore anymore by the time they entered the mess hall.

  Those bubbly feeling lasted until they found out that neither Maik, Stacy nor any of the others were getting any extra food with their meal, a point she just had to ask about when they sat down to eat lunch together.

  “The meditation is helping but I was kinda looking forward to a larger meal. Didn't you and Boyd have something worked out ?”

  The Chi instructor shrugged, inwardly thankful that the Enhanced biological resource skill was doing its thing to mitigate Maik's calorie intake requirements. “You recall that I failed hard in my attempts at politics yesterday ? Well this is part of it. Seems that the trilogy is more concerned about the food supply then we thought and are sticking to strict food allowances until more stable production is up and going. Boyd might have also been a little cranky due to being hungry during our talk”

  Stacy scoffs. “Fuh. Does he even know what its like to run low on Chi like we were yesterday. How empty it makes you feel ?”

  The lilin couldn't help but smirk. “Oh he knows. They've been using the sending skill as lot to demonstrate the practical use of Chi manipulation to all the new heads of departments. Boyd and Leavery both were rather forceful in making sure to assert their position over me in the discussion. I was truly surprised at the Length and Width of their argument, even if they were gentle about pounding the point into me.” Still smirking the lilin shook their head. “No, they really dominated that conversation, that's for sure.”

  The others didn't look too happy with the news either and it was Eugene who spoke up first. “At least the meditations are helping. I was able to push the skill you shared with me thanks to that practice.”

  James pipes in at that point. “And compared to yesterday you two don't look nearly as starved.”

  Both of them seeming to miss any of the implications that Maik had subtly dropped though Stacy did look a tad suspicious.

  The Chi instructor had been talking with Stacy about her progress during the sessions and was liking what they were seeing. “That's correct. Its like the air is just jam packed with loose Chi now and can be absorbed to replenish depleted reserves, all be it slowly. At my skill level the draw seems passive but at you guys level it will require conscious effort. That and it seems that people need a little extra right after they finish large modification such as a big stat boost or...” The lilin pointed looks at Skip. “A race change. I wouldn't have pictured you as an elf man.”

  The pointy eared ginger lightly blushes and partially turns away to sigh. When he looks back he leans in to whisper so that only the 7 of them can hear. “I'm not an elf. Now don't go spreading this around, but, I saw that I could become a tier 4 race. Lessor Fay, young adult and just had to take it.”

  Eugene was flabbergast. “What ? Why do you get the cool magical race option while all I get is some strange Huari giant ?” The others looked at him with controlled expressions as they tried not to giggle at the larger late teen.

  Maik faltered first, the grin coming despite their best efforts. “Well, you have to admit. It kinda fits man.”

  Eugene's expression sobered them up with how upsetting the option was clearly making him. “....Look man. Its not just a race...” He lowers his voice. “It says that if I Chose this race I'll manifest as the direct descendant of this Huari, who, get this, is or was a God of the Tawantinsuyu people.”

  The confused looks on the others faces wasn't helping matters and Elisha blurts out. “I'm not familiar with these ... Tawentsuyu. And what about a god ?”

  The Mexican explains. “Apparently Tawantinsuyu is the native name for what we call the Inca. You know that civilization the Spaniards reported finding in south America ? I looked it up in the library yesterday.” Now it was everyone else turn to be flabbergasted.

  Maik suddenly had a rather pertinent question that he had to voice. “What tier is the race ?” The usually decisive young man held up 4 fingers but no thumb close to his chest. The lilins response was instant. “Take it. As soon as you have the points. Take it. Skip ? Your race tier ?” The ginger held up the same number of fingers and no thumb. The lilin sighed through their nose and nodded to the others before conceding. “The one I chose was a higher tier as well.”

  Stacy swallowed and looked a little apprehensive. “All of us, really ?” Now it was her turn to lean forward and whisper. “Mine talks about the inheritance of some goddess Minerva. I just don't know about.... becoming the embodiment of some.... roman goddess inheritance. I'm a devout Christian you know ?” She sat back up strait, tall and proud even seated. “Plus, what are the odds ?” She meets all of their eyes. “As a member of the medical department I've talked with a lot of people and... subtly asked about this topic. Most people just have the tier 3 options.”

  Maik's voice was the immovable mountain of assured resolve to Stacy's ocean of doubt and worry. “Its just a race, not even a species change. It shouldn't change your beliefs or who you are inside, but it will make you more powerful. Much more powerful.”

  The tall young lady shook her head and looked away from Maik's gaze. She searched the eyes of the other 2, Eugene's in particular sense he was in much the same boat. No answers were to be found there however, the big guy just as conflicted about the choice as she was so she ultimately turns her attention back to Maik. There was a lot more fire in her eyes when she met the lilins gaze once again. “You didn't answer my question. What did you inherit from in order to get a tier that high ?”

  Maik didn't even fight the compulsion to keep his secrets on this one and just told her. “Its called Lilin. A primordial race of humans and its oddities were totally worth it.”

  Skip nodded while Eugene and Stacy frowned and the others looked between each other with hesitant expressions. It was actually Jose who broke the silence. “If you say so Maik. We'll see. From what I hear though, things north of campus are settling down and there is more good news than bad coming on the radio. Maybe we should hold off on anything major like changing our race until after some experts can study this. At the very least we should wait until the caravan gets back with news on whats happening out there.”

  The lilin just shrugged. “You can wait if you want. But the longer you do the more you'll miss out on. Then again maybe your choice isn't as great as I'm imagining. I didn't see any of those options when I picked my race evolution.” The lilin gestures at the ginger with their last spork full of apple sauce. “Your race provide anything special ? Like traits or affinities ?”

  The fay smirks and puts an index finger to his lips, obviously not wanting to divulge all of his secrets. The lilin scoffs a laugh before downing their milk to finish the meal and then checks the time.

  “just before 1. That gives us another 30 minutes before I need to start training up the faculty, Sara's still manning the food court and Eugene will be training with me later. So how about it skip. You up for a quick lesson in tier 4 skills before I need to get back to work ?”

  The ginger shakes his head. “I have some things that me and Jose are still working out. Race related things I'm still exploring and the skills I'm helping Jose develop. Maybe some other time.” He actually smirks and winks at Maik before the this next part. “Besides... My 'Chi manipulation' skill is already at Experienced.”

  Both Stacy and Eugene quietly gaped at him and the boyish gingers just seemed to find that even funnier as he started laughing. Jose just scoffed and shook his head. The lilin clearly wasn't the only one who was special it seemed.

  “Well in that case. Sense I still have half an hour I think I'll do some focused meditation.”

  Stacy looked like she wanted to ask something but Maik had already instructed her on the motions she needed to practice repeatedly in order to advance her Chi manipulation skill higher. More advanced methods would be taught when she had the skill to handle them.

  Thirty minutes. It doesn't sound like a lot of time but it was the most free time the late teen had to them self sense this whole disaster started. Back in the lecture room Maik took one of the raised seats and assumed a meditative pose before focusing inward. Cycling Chi through each of the Chacras to energize the whole of their body was the first step. Then projecting a cone downwards to pull from the earth to the base chacra while using the crown chacra to project a second cone upwards to pull from the heavens.

  As the energy was drawn into those chacras it was refined and condensed with a counterclockwise motions, seeming to turn from smoke into mist. Both condensed streams of energy were pulled to a metaphysical location, below the heart and just a few centimeters in front of the spine, Maik's center.

  The roughly spherical shape eagerly drew the energy by spinning it in a clockwise direction for further refinement, feeling like it turned from mist into fluid. This was allowing Maik to continuously compress an enormous amount of the smoke thickness energy into the small space of the lilins center. So much so that Maik had probably only managed to fill the space to about 10% by the time the teen felt their shoulder being nudged.

  Slowly Maik brought their awareness back to the outside world, opening eyes to see Boyd standing to the teens right. The math teacher wasted no time. “The others will be here soon so we may as well get started.”

  The lilin stretched as they got up, a grunted. “Yes Sir.” Was offered sense the department head of medical was there as well. Looking at the clock revealed it to be 1:26, so the lilin had only gotten about 22 minutes of cultivation in. Still that was enough it seemed.

  Before they got started though Maik approached Boyd. "Sir. May I use Auric effects during the training session ? I really does make things go much faster and is way more efficient on my Chi usage. So much so that I don't think that I can teach the whole class more then one higher tier skill during the session without it."

  "Explain."

  "When using and auric effect I can use a single casting to walk everyone though the thoughts, feeling and sensation or using the skill at the same time. It really much cheaper and saves a lot of time, Time I will need to connect with and help people through using the skill. On top of that, If I keep Auric effects running I can instantly respond to anyone in trouble while they are within my auric field reach."

  Tier 4 skill advanced – Cultivation, Chi – Capable

  The simplest is Chi ? What are the more complex forms of magical energy ? Mana duhhhh. Duhhhh. I would like to point out that that is not confirmed as yet. A rose by any other name still smells just as sweet.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  In the end all of the trilogy members attended that first group, except for Leavery as he went with the caravan. With them were the heads of the Agriculture, engineering and other departments for a total of 12 people in Maik's first large scare higher tier chi skill class. Like with Stacy Maik helped them all through the motions, showing them how to manipulate their Chi flows for optimal improvement.

  Through this method Maik was able to impart each of them with a new skill Boyd had develped. This was, or course, after Maik learned it them self. On top of this the lilin was able to impart each of them with and additional tier 4 skill, Minor healing, over the next hour and 5 minutes. They each had differing interests for their first Tier 4 skill but they were trying to stream line the process at this point.

  Tier 3 skill acquired – Magic resistance minor – beginner

  A strong enough aura or magic projection can penetrate the natural defenses of a life form, allowing the caster to directly manipulate the target from within, in accordance with the skill being used. Magic resistance greatly improves one defenses against such attacks.

  There was no wondering how the math teacher acquired the skill but Maik was actually glad they had it now. The lilin really had crossed a line yesterday and was glad that those they cared for would ultimately wind up having such a skill now. The idea that people would have at least some defense against the kinds of thing Maik would do was comforting.

  Until we find a way around it. Oooo a new pet project. Behave. We can be that guy who tries to hack peoples minds for a living and help develop new defenses. Or we could secretly take control without them knowing. Creative. Good idea. Primal. Bad. Your being bad and you need to stop it. Gurrrrr.

  In the end Maik had burned his way through a total of 1,974 chi to finish the 12s training for just those 2 skills. This left him with about 356, not low enough to start affecting Maik's mental state but still pretty low and they informed Boyd as much when the math teacher requested a report.

  "Alright. We'll keep these classes at 12 for now. Good job. Keep at it."

  The next thing that Maik figured out came during the 25 minute break between sessions. It had been difficult to get any accurate measurements until Maik asked Stacy to count out 60 seconds for them while cultivating. The herm found that actively cultivating now recovered twice as much as before.

  105 Chi per minute. Impressive. Ohhh yeah boyyyyy. The power.

  This allowed Maik to recover their entire Chi pool during the 25 minute break.

  The next afternoon session went much like the first with each of them gaining the Magic resistance minor skill and the Minor healing skill. Eugene had been part of that one. The super sized Mexican having earned the slot though volunteering for patrol duty and was serving as an example of what loyal service to the trilogy could grant the other students.

  Shortly before the 6th and final of the days sessions was when things changed. Nathan, now Boyd's second in command, sprinted into the room.

  “The caravans back. We have injured. Anyone with the “Minor healing' skill is needed. Now.”

  There was no time to waste on pointless questions. There was only action, running, breathing and worry and focus. Maik's reserves were looking good at little over 50% at 1324 Chi calories remaining in the tank. so they infused some Chi into their body to move faster and boy was it an improvement. Not super human by any means but a noticeable difference all the same.

  Maik arrived at the nurses office and was immediately directed through the crowd to the most critical case. The nurses office wasn't designed to house the number of patients they had so Bullet wounds were receiving priority attention.

  It was the schools resource officer and one of the people Maik had trained up yesterday. The patient was bald on top of the full but well kept beard and a dark black complection. That last part was particularly important because the guy also looked pail somehow and that was a very bad sign. Maik spread out their aura and made a connection with the head of the medical department with one hand while the other was placed upon the patient.

  They quickly started removing the patients garments and body armor while Maik applied Minor healing at key points to stifle blood loss. The patient thankfully had ballistic armor on but only Kevlar, no plate and it seemed that rifle rounds had been used. He had taken one such round in the chest, another in the abdomen and a third in the leg. The one that hit the leg went strait through but thankfully missed the bone and the main artery. The other 2 rifle bullets were still inside the mans body.

  There were also 2 smaller caliber rounds, probably pistol, one in his shoulder and the other in his hip. That was all on top of the 8 rounds that the vest had stopped, though each of those bullets had cracked bones and left severe bruising in their wake.

  The patients aura was so weak Maik didn't even need permission to look inside the guys body with chi sight. The lilin enveloped the officers whole body in his aura field and imbued it with the the effect of the minor healing skill. The head of the medical department started working on the patient while Boyd took over maintaining the mental link with the sending skill. This allowed Maik to focus all attention on being the eyes for the head of medical and to focus on healing the patient.

  Being able to sense what she was doing in 3 dimensions did so much to help her performance. Surgery that should have been well beyond her expertise was being performed with efficiency and minimal invasion of the patients body. long tweezers easily found and removed all the foreign matter without needing to cut at or widen the wounds much, Minor healing and Chi body infusion were projected and combined to convinced damaged veins to close and stop bleeding until the work was completed.

  Once all the bullets and other foreign bits were removed the wounds were sterilized and the holes sewn closed. Bandages were liberally applied sense Maik just didn't have the chi needed to completely restore the man. Now with his meager Capable level skill proficiency. At least they managed to stabilize the patient, a minor mirical given the severity of his wounds.

  Maik had really burned through their Chi reserves on that first patient. After using Auric effect to project 2 different effects while using Ch projection to apply at 3ed at the same time for extended periods the lilin was crashing hard now that they were down to 53 chi.

  The lilin was drenched in sweat from the effort of upholding so many effects at once but there were still wounded to be tended too. Thankfully the head of medical hadn't needed to use as much of her Chi on that first patient, letting Maik carry the bulk of that task while she focused on each individual wound in turn as she patched the guy up.

  Maik checked the notifications while shambling over to find a corner where they could sit and recover.

  Tier 3 skill advanced – Aura projection – intermediate

  Tier 4 skill advanced – Auric effect – intermediate

  Everyone who had the Minor healing skill were here and thankfully none of the other patients had more than 1 bullet wound a piece. Fortunately none of them were in terribly life threatening places and all of a small caliber. This meant that despite the much lower skill level in both minor healing and Chi manipulation they still managed to tend to the other patients in the time it took to patch up the officer.

  The head of medical moved to tend to one of the remaining wounded patients, someone with a broken arm, while Maik left the room to rest. There were no words from the people milling about. Just tired and grim focus on the tasks at hand.

  Sleep nearly took Maik several times as the lilin delved into them self and then started up the process of drawing in the free floating energy that now saturated everything. Maik drew in and refined until the energy just as he had done earlier. condensing the energy and filling their center and slowly the exhoustion left Maik's body as they began to feel strong and energized once again. This continued until after the hunger went away and then some more, not stopping until Maik felt full once more.

  Satisfied with this result for the moment Maik brought their perception back to the waking world and went over what they had figured out about their Chi recovery.

  So our passive recovery seems to match our Chi manipulation skill, 7 chi per minute. When we cycle our Chi though. That recovery changes, going up to 35 chi per minute, 5 times more. Its seems to be connected to our race tier. Looks like its race tier, 5, times our passive recovery 7. Then there is Cultivation. We were getting about 50 per minute at level 1 but now were getting 105 per minute.

  105 divided by 35 = 3. And 50 divided by 35 = 1.42. So maybe Cultivation = circulation recovery rate, 35, time (cultivation skill level, 2, times 1.5) or 35 x (2 x 1.5) That should mean that when we level the cultivation skill again it should reach 157.5 per minute. Okay... Okay. I can see it. Fun puzzle.

  Advancing the cultivation skill was only a matter to time for Maik as there were still more layers to the skill that the lilin hadn't tired yet. With wasn't do to laziness but more a matter that Maik was handling so much more energy now and Chi overflow was a real danger that could badly hurt them. Simply spinning the energy in the clockwise motion to condense it down to the point of feeling like liquid had started to hurt and burn and Maik needed to practice and refine the technique before trying to take it further.

  This wasn't usually an issue for Maik as cycling Chi was practically second nature to them after all the practice and training over the past 4 years. However with the increased energy levels Maik felt warn out, like the lilin had been running a marathon earlier today. Only it felt like that for their Chi and aura rather than Maik's muscles.

  By the time the lilin arrived back at the infirmary their chi bar was full and Maik was feeling much better. This was good because everyone else with the Minor healing skill needed a break at this point, though every patient had also received care. Leavery saw Maik come back in and instantly drilled the teen. “Daley. Firstly, Good work on Stevens. Second, now that you've had a break, Can you get back at it ?”

  The lilin nodded and and went back to the officers bedside. The man was still stable but far from recovered and would still need much tending.