“I will have to side with Foranda on this, despite the injuries and middling gains this was only the first expedition, it was a sort of test run to see if we could handle the forest without needing any solid teamwork, but now that we have gained some practical experience, we can train out our synergy and earn more blood cores for fewer injuries, I hope you can understand this decision Archer, you can leave the party but please reconsider it if you do, you have one of the best talents in archery that I have ever seen and you help was invaluable in the field for ambushes and counter-attacks.” (Roland)

Do I leave? No, I won’t, I would rather stay with the team that has the highest potential, and this team has that in abundance, the danger can be mitigated with suitable amounts of skill and experience, but still one mistake is all it takes for the whole stack to topple over.

“Fine” (Archer)”

Roland smiled and gave me a friendly pat on the back.

I took two blood cores from the pile and headed back towards my room, I put the bow on my lap using it as a sort of impromptu mental focus anchor, I readied myself for my first Qi absorption.

My Qi source was producing a small stream as usual that split into many subsidiary branches, but the biggest of them all was the one going to my brain, its constant flow giving the brain a semi-permanent boost to all its core attributes.

I brought my fist to my mouth, giving the little blood cores in my palm a wif, doesn’t have a smell for some reason, which is weird since it has only been two days since Joe had extracted them from the bodies of the goblins.

The blood cores tasted like blood, which shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, they were small enough not to pose any problems while going down my throat and reached my gullet without me feeling like I should puke my breakfast over the wood floor, good progress.

They then dissolved into Qi and with a purpose, I have not observed Qi ever having apart from sticking to ‘Path Travel Frequency’ rule, they headed towards my Qi gate, the intermediary between my body and the Qi source, they swirled around it in the form of a whirlpool and they started to seep into its foundation, strengthening the bond and connection between my body and Qi source. (which if you want to be more specific on what a Qi source is, it's basically a supposedly endless energy dimension that is unique with its presence in all lifeforms)

I willed the visibly bigger Qi stream into my brain, my control was still at the 50%, but maybe if I can dig around the library or ask a senior disciple how to increase it, my primary abilities would become doubly powerful, and for the main benefactor being the brain, I can use it to avoid dangers that would have escaped slower minded individuals.

I stayed sitting on a soft cushion for the rest of the morning, carefully cementing the pathways the Qi traveled in, fine-tuning places where it appeared to spread too much or focus on areas that my manual says is irrelevant.

In this extended internal viewing session, I discovered what the manual meant by portals to different dimensions, like the Qi Realm but not innately connected to all life since birth.

When I observed some of those I got a feedback feeling of what to expect and with the help of my manual that has quite a bit of information on them, I identified them and their characteristics.

There were three of them situated in the area the layman would call the mind’s eye.

The first was an energy dimension that could make me capable of remote control of physical objects, the second could spawn an eye in the middle of the forehead, apparently, this one is connected to a fair few of the humanoid races, and the last and most interesting is an empty timeless dimension of infinite space, this would have been great for trading if it wasn’t for its tendency to make people connected to it completely and utterly mad.

Sighing in defeated hope, life doesn’t have any easy short cuts built into it does it, even the rich young masters that had awakened their Qi sense early in life couldn’t take in blood cores because they would rip apart from the seams, you can’t even consomme a bunch of blood cores and become super powerful, you would lose your Qi source and live a life knowing how your pasts ignorance and arrogance destroyed what could have been the path to immortality.

But anyway, I’m not going to explore any new dimensions at this moment, I would rather focus on one thing then spread out my Qi over and over until the only gains I get are weak powers that wouldn’t hurt a fly.

No use thinking about the future without first experiencing the present, I should go get some training with my new intelligence.

I exited my room and headed over to check on Tog and Nog, they seemed to be recovering and will be combat effective in a week.

I descended the main stairs and found the training yard filled with the same people I had seen earlier in the morning, some seemed to be testing their limits no doubt because of their near-death experiences, but others barely put in any effort at all, they had resignation written all over their eyes and stance, people who thought that unlocking their Qi was going to make them a god among mortals, but instead got the grim reality of them still being too weak to even survive multiple encounters with local pests from the backyard of the sect, not even being in the same league as the monsters I had seen when entering the sect.

A foolish delusion I’m lucky to have avoided before it had dug its claws too deep into my beliefs.

Nevermind them, as long I keep on improving my skills and with a bit of luck, I can keep myself breathing and in one piece.

Setting myself across a straw practice target, I breathed in and out, heartbeat low, eyes on the target, wind direction and speed optimal, full draw, and...not yet...not yet...no-. 

"Are you going to shoot your shoot or what?"(???)