Remodeling the ki paths of the two girls turned out to be far easier than I expected. Perhaps it was because they weren’t resisting, or simply the difference in our levels. Either way, it took less than an hour to get both of them set up with the same ki path that I myself had been using until just recently.
Once we were done with that, I helped them in converting four of their ki pools into elemental ki of the different types. This alone seemed to surprise them, as the idea of a single person using different types of elemental ki had apparently not yet been put into practice within this world. Given the difficulty in cleansing a fully converted ki pool, I wasn’t too surprised at that.
Only when we came to the final step did I begin to feel any pressure. Creating the Ki of Beginning was a highly complex procedure, and I myself had only been able to succeed due to the intervention of my world sight. Naturally, I wouldn’t go so far as to bestow my world sight upon the two of them, which left me with a rather difficult dilemma.
Should I attempt to guide them through the process to increase their chances, use my own energy to influence the process, or try some other method? The first had the highest chance of failure outside of leaving them to their own devices, while the second meant that they would be unable to pass the teaching on to others. As for the third… what other method was there?
Wait… maybe… I turned to look at Sarah. “This next step is the dangerous one. I am going to attempt a shortcut. If it fails, we will have to resort to manually merging the energy, which will put both of your lives at risk. If it succeeds, this danger can be avoided, though I am not sure at what cost.”
“What is the shortcut?” Sarah asked, her voice confident once again now that she had managed to get this far. I knew fully well the pain that she had endured in the first step, but thankfully she was able to move past that.
“I will be injecting a small amount of energy into one of your ki hearts. From there, you will need to circulate it on your own to the elemental ki nodes.” For this step, I would be using the most gentle and pure Ki of Beginning to reduce the risk of any serious backlash. As an energy that existed purely to heal and repair, I hoped that it would be safe to start there.
Sarah thought about it for a moment, before nodding her head. Anyone that had merged energies before knew the risks in doing so, and knew that these risks only increased with the complexity of the energy. There was a reason that only one percent of people would be able to successfully achieve the perfect self, even though the process was known. One wrong step, one moment of letting the pain overwhelm you, and it was all over.
Although there was the chance that some defect could occur from stimulating the Ki of Beginning in this way, there was no way to be sure. Sooner or later, someone would have to bite the bullet to become the guinea pig for this experiment. Knowing that, Sarah chose to take that burden herself.
Mara looked towards her sister in concern before nodding as well and stepping back. Seeing that, I stepped over to Sarah’s side, and placed my hand on her flank once again. A small tremble ran through her body as she was immediately reminded of the pain from having her ki paths taken apart.
What is this energy? Sarah was taken aback as she felt the hand on her flank this time. With the description that her king had given her regarding the energy that they were trying to obtain, she expected a powerful, domineering force to spread through her body.
Instead, however, it was far more gentle than even ordinary ki. If she didn’t focus on it, she was sure that she would entirely lose sight of it a moment later. Sarah watched this energy infusing itself into one of her ki hearts, at which point a small pain spread through her body.
In order to maximize the chance of success, the elderly man had cut off his connection with the ki as soon as it had reached its designation. At this point, it was an energy without an owner, and sought to bind itself to the home in which it had been given.
Could it really be that easy, though? Sarah felt as if a fire had been lit inside of her, letting out a gasp of pain. Naturally, the answer was no. The Ki of Beginning was not an energy created purely out of ki, so of course it couldn’t just replicate itself onto normal ki. It had to forcibly draw in the energies from the surroundings to complete this process, pouring them into Sarah’s body.
Green and blue mists seemed to surge around her as her ki was slowly converted. Her health bar appeared above her head, and began slowly trickling down, a sign that her organs were being harmed by this process.
Mara watched nervously, her eyes alternating between Sarah and the health bar. As a high level monk, she had far more health than the average person, but even still the decline was visible. Mara could only clench her fists, hoping that the mysterious elder would step in and stop the procedure, or use some method to heal her.
Her hopes went unanswered, though, as the man only stood to the side and watched. If he were to use a healing spell, or inject more Ki of Beginning into her body to heal it, there was the chance that doing so would interfere with the conversion process and destroy her body. With that being the case, the only option he had was to wait, only interfering if she was truly about to die.
Soon, her health bar had declined until there was only a quarter of it remaining. Mara wanted to scream for him to help her, but bit her lip to stifle herself. It was then that she noticed that the mist around Sarah seemed to recede. Her health bar did not immediately recover, but it also didn’t continue to decline.
The elderly man closed his eyes, focusing for a moment. “A number of her internal organs have ruptured, and the muscles of her front-right leg are bruised.” For a normal centaur, these wounds would be fatal without immediate attention. However, they were still treatable with normal ki, though the process would be slow.
“If she circulates her new energy through the affected areas, she should be able to restore to prime condition soon enough.” The words helped to calm Mara, but it seemed as though Sarah herself didn’t even hear them. Her eyes were unfocused, her concentration entirely on the unusual energy within her body.
She had not yet obtained the promised class, but that wasn’t a surprise. It was the Saint of Five Lights, not one light. She expected that she would need to train the rest of her elemental ki with this new energy in order to receive the class.
After a moment, she noticed the pain flowing through her body. Almost as a reflex, the new Ki of Beginning surged through her ki paths, repairing any of her organs that it came across before returning to its home. The rate of recovery astounded her, far surpassing anything she had seen with normal ki, and instead bordering the realm of a powerful healing spell.
“Good. Now, once you are ready, you can begin training the other energies.” The man said, before looking to Mara. “I can’t sense any deviation in her ki, so this method should be safe. That is, with the condition that you are able to survive the process. You saw how much damage she took, are you confident that you can withstand that?”
Mara thought about that question seriously. As a pegasus, she had a number of levels in the scout class as well as monk. With their levels being roughly the same, this meant that her health would naturally be lower than Sarah’s. “It will be close, but I should be able to manage.”
The man nodded, walking over towards Mara and repeating the process of converting one of her ki hearts. Mara was indeed cutting it close, most of her organs rupturing before she had managed to finish the conversion. It was close enough that she wasn’t able to stimulate her new ki herself, and required the elderly man to intervene and save her after the process was done.
From there, the two of them spent the remainder of the day training to merge their elemental ki types into this new Ki of Beginning. Only then did Mara and Sarah receive the Saint of Five Lights class, confirming his words that there truly had been a hidden class all this time.
As the night fell, the two knights returned to their king, kneeling in respect. Seeing them return safely, the king offered a satisfied nod. “How long do you suspect it will take to receive this new class?” He asked, expecting that they would have heard some kind of training schedule from their temporary instructor.
However, to his surprise, the two girls exchanged complicated expressions before speaking. “Reporting to His Highness, the two of us have already received the Saint of Five Lights class.”
The king’s eyes went wide in shock as he heard that, and he immediately sent an order to bring a status orb into the throne room. Only after confirming the existence of the class, and the fact that it was indeed an advanced class, did the king let out a sigh of relief. “Could it be that the class is not as wondrous as it appeared?”
Clearly, he was starting to think about going back on his deal with the mysterious hermit. If the class was truly not what was promised, then there was no need for them to uphold their end of the deal as well.
Sarah lifted her head to look at the king. “May I speak freely, Your Highness?”
Only when the king assented with a nod did she continue. “The abilities of the class were just as you explained to us previously. However, there was also an additional healing property that wasn’t explained. The reason that we were able to achieve our results so quickly was in part due to this property, and furthermore the elder’s reshaping of our ki paths.”
“Do you think that you would be able to replicate this effect in others?” The king asked curiously. If these two girls were able to create more like them, then perhaps there was still no need for the hermit.
However, Sarah shook her head. “If I had a few years to study the ki path that I had been given, I might be able to replicate it, but I would not have any guarantee of success. The process of doing so would likely cost us numerous lives.”
The king fell silent at those words. While an entire world was truly a heavy price to pay, it did not compare to the lives of his people. After all, they had yet to properly colonize the world he requested, so the only thing that they would truly lose would be the time spent discovering it.
“Very well. Pass my words to the World Seekers. The gate of Sitesh will be given to this hermit in the morning, in exchange for his assistance in cultivating a Saint Order.” With that decree, the ownership of a world had officially fallen into another’s hand. Though it was only a verbal agreement, it was as good as gold when the only key to the world was given up.
Five days passed by after that, in which time a total of fifty centaurs were granted the Saint of Five Lights class. They would become the first generation of Sher Dien’s Saint Order, the strongest fighting force that the planet had to offer.
Furthermore, by order of the king, their existence was to remain a secret until the day that they were called to action. While he knew that their power could inspire the envy of other worlds, it would also draw the envy of the ascended gods. It was hard to say who would win if one such god came to pry into the secrets of this order.
