Sorry, this chapter is a bit(a lot actually) long. I felt it difficult to stop midway, as the words kept flowing out. I didn't want to break the chapter somewhere undesirable. Thanks for reading!!!

I found myself relaxing with my feet dipped into the pool again. This time opposed to the cloudy skies that the Ashrama usually has, the night sky was filled with stars, the patterns of which dotted the surface of the water like twinkling precious gems. The waterfall was now slowly falling, reaching all the way down instead of floating away like it usually did. The waterfall shone with a silvery glow, adorning the heavenly glow of the full moon. I felt something touch my shoulder, and saw the girl from dawn sitting by my side, softly leaning against me, paddling her legs in the water and looking up at the waterfall with a sense of wonder. I didn't take a closer look before because of 'reasons' but now under the moonlight, her face lit up with a sense of mysteriousness and divinity. Suddenly, the moon started getting dim, as if something celestial was swallowing it up. I glanced up to see a lunar eclipse occuring at an unbelievable speed. By now I had realised it was a dream and prepared mentally to open my eyes, the same feeling you get when your dreams get too outlandish to even be real, and you consciously separate yourself from the scenario, trying to change things as you wish.

"Yo, let's go for breakfast." Anik was patting my shoulder right where I had felt that stupid feeling. 

"Well, it's embarrassing." I muttered and went to the washroom preparing to freshen myself. 

"That was quite a dream, wasn't it?" I heard Panna teasing me through her connection. "As soon as you awakened one chakra the dormant ones nearer to it have started acting up."

While the muladhara chakra (root chakra) creation process needs you to be comfortable and be accepting of yourself, the sacral chakra (swadhisthana chakra) lying below the navel is responsible for emotional control and stability. Unless I awaken this chakra, my thoughts and focus will start to waver, making me unable to concentrate. We need a different yoga pose for awakening different chakras too. The only one I knew properly, the tree pose, where you sit with your legs crossed and your palms on the knees was a method for awakening the root one. For the sacral one, we have to bend our legs like a crab, making sure that the thighs are parallel to the ground, while the shin part is perpendicular. I have to continue doing that until I gain enlightenment on emotional stability and create the chakra as a result. Now the question is how long I needed to do that. Usually, each chakra center requires a year to open after the first one. So one chakra between two classes till twelfth. 

This time the four of us shared the same table. 

"How far are you guys?" Anik asked peeling a banana, the question being directed specifically to Saiyan. 

"We already awakened it yesterday evening right after dinner." Saiyan said truthfully. "What about you guys?"

"I'm still working on it." Dweep replied nonchalantly. "These things usually take time for me."

Dweep was surprisingly quite perceptive of where he stood. He can also open the root chakra if he wanted, I felt.

"I'm almost there." Anik replied this time, "Probably by tonight I'll be done with it."

Then they all looked at me. "Uhh, I've been trying the Shavasana, but fell asleep midway." I couldn't stop myself from lying. It felt bad deceiving my teammates. But I didn't want others to know about it, yet. What if my secret spot gets discovered? I need to use it to the fullest and build myself up before others get an inkling of what happened.

"Shavasana..." Anik snickered, "You were twisting and turning while sleeping instead of lying still like a dead body."

Shavasana is actually derived from the word 'Shava' which meant a dead body. We have to stay still with our backs to the ground, facing upwards in a relaxed manner for that yoga pose to work.

After having some bread and butter, bananas, a glass of milk and a boiled egg, we came out of the hall to wash our hands and rinse our mouths. 

It took time to wash the butter off my fingers so Saiyan waited for me to finish.

"I have two things to ask of you." I suddenly asked of him, "I want to know what you're doing, now that your chakra is awakened. And I need you to ask the girl with shoulder length hair, with green kundalini, to give me some time today. I've been rude to her this morning, and want to apologize. If there are two girls with green kundalini you don't have to do anything. Things will get complicated otherwise."

S: "You're talking about Somi probably. She was the only one who awakened the heart chakra among us yesterday. I'll let you know the time and place if she agrees. Ah, just a warning in case you're interested in her. Awakening the heart chakra requires coming to terms with the feelings of love and compassion. It is possible her heart is already set on someone else. Just saying, to keep you away from unnecessary heart burn." 

I wondered if reading my emotions gave him some kind of cue for adding those unnecessary details at the end.

"Yeah, the hormones sometime make you think about unnecessary things. That doesn't mean I'll act up on it. Thanks for the heads up." I didn't deny it incessantly like an idiot. If he felt something, knowing his trait, there might be something dormant within me that I haven't realised properly. Whatever it is, the heart chakra comes later in the list. I have got other things to do right now. 

"What about the next phase of training? Is it allowed to tell someone else?" I asked coming back to the topic. "Is there also some kind of skill where I can use my drawing skills? It is one of the things I'm confident about. I was really fascinated with Charm Creation too. What kind of basics should I train with, to create a good fundamental for that?"

Saiyan stared at the peak of a mountain for a while like he often does while thinking.

S: "Right now, we are sending our stored Kundalini through the sap vessels like an express train without any stops. They said that it will increase our kundalini conductivity, reducing the time to activate skills. Next we will try consuming the kundalini that have been filtered by the chakra centers and repeat it to increase the efficiency of Shakti to kundalini conversion. Not all the Shakti we absorb gets converted to the same amount of kundalini. We lose some in the process. The less we lose, the better. Finally the last task will be to activate our skills again and again to increase their proficiency. We have three days left before the Rakshak Vrata, so we have to try completing one task everyday." He explained carefully. No wonder he took some time to organize the words.

"That was surprisingly informative. I really appreciate you telling me everything. Ughh, now I feel guilty of lying to you guys." I said with a face painted red with guilt.

"Yeah, I thought you would be telling it to only me, after letting them go on their way. I was this close to getting disappointed when you started asking for favours." Saiyan said with a smug face. "Which one did you awaken? I awakened the one on the solar plexus, Manipura chakra."

It was a chakra you awaken when you find your purpose in life. It gives you tremendous power whenever you are focused on your goal. It totally made sense considering his character. The first chakra you create is often a reflection of who are are at that instance.

"I awakened the Muladhara one. Meeting you made me realise how inexperienced I was, and it gave me a new motivation to work harder. Thanks." I wasn't lying this time.

"I didn't know I had such an effect on you. I'm glad that you let me know. I'm honoured." he said back seriously.

"Now, now, no need to butter me up like that. I'm still far from being capable of helping you. But considering how you've helped me without asking for anything in return, I'll never hesitate to do the same. Remember that." I tapped his shoulder as went on two different paths. Him towards God knows where for the special training, probably inside some barrier, and me towards the waterfall.

I entered my personal cave and sat down in the tree pose on the Shakti Rekha. This time, it was quite bearable. I felt Panna watching me. I was grateful she didn't intrude into everything I did and let me try things out by myself before offering her advice. Three things to do. Activating skills. Circulating the kundalini within my sap vessels. Emptying out Kundalini and filling it up again after filtering the Shakti we absorb.

My field of protection active skill will be quite handy in a fight I guess. Let's activate it for now. As soon as I muttered the words, green light enveloped the cave walls and my Kundalini started depleting at an alarming rate. Holding my breath and using Wood Flesh on my left hand, I vigorously rubbed it on my right one scratching and tearing away my skin and muscles in the process. The blood loss might be a problem if the Recovery skill only mended my wounds by closing them up, without regenerating the blood I lost. I tried activating both field of protection and Recovery simultaneously as my brain started heating up. Wow, I felt like a worthless desktop setup with 1 GB RAM, struggling to open multiple tabs in the browser.

This is how I formulated my training method.

First, I'll activate all important skills while hurting my body in different places. The chest, abdomen, shoulders, hands, thighs, shin, feet, back, and waist, nothing will be missed. It will allow my Kundalini to travel to different parts of the body in order to heal it. While field of protection will be responsible for making the mouth of the sap vessels more active, as during the skill, I keep emanating kundalini from my body. I realised my skills, being gifted by Panna had a green coloured base. When I'll have skills of my own, they might be red in color when they get activated. If you imagine the seven Colors of the rainbow, each of the chakras represent one color of it, starting with red in the bottom to violet at the top. Seeing the colors we can guess which chakra has been awakened for newcomers like us. Right now people will think that I have activated the heart chakra instead because of the green coloured skills.

Next, after my kundalini gets depleted totally, I'll use up all my Prana points to convert it to kundalini except one. I wanted to do this manually without the help of Panna. I'll repeat step one after the conversion is done.

Finally, after both Prana and Kundalini is almost depleted I'll absorb Shakti from the Rekha and start filtering it to Kundalini and again go back to step one.

Since I can recover my Prana points only by consuming food, I can do it once after every meal.

"Let's start." I said preparing myself as I started hurting myself in different places. I also made sure to go naked, otherwise all my white clothes would be stained in red. I only hoped that no one found out about this cave. Finding me all naked, hurting myself and bleeding all over, will only traumatize people if they ever peek inside.

A continued it for three and a half hours until I heard the sound of bells coming from a distance. The walk back was much easier than last time but tiring none the less. I had to squeeze out whatever energy I had just to reach the Dining Hall for lunch. Wolfing down on all the fruits that were served, sitting in a table with randoms, I didn't fail to get awkward glances from them.

"Bro, you okay? You look like a horse on its last legs. What have you been doing?" one of them asked.

"Bro this Kundalini circulation isn't just working. I thought activating skills might help, automatically moving the Kundalini towards various parts of the body but it's kind of different than willing the energy to actually flow through your vessels the way you want." I revealed a lot in my lightheaded condition.

"Ah, I get it." He agreed.

I was feeling a bit guilty, thinking I was blatantly bragging in front of these random people, but there was actually someone in the table who had created a chakra already.

"The sages should atleast check up on us to see if we are already done with our assignment or not. The people who have already created a chakra are just sitting around having no clue what to do next. We are just going around giving tips to other people, helping them to awaken theirs. The faster everybody creates one, the quicker we can get the teachings for what to do next." The guy said. He was very tanned, with a big nose and thick lips. But his voice was really deep. It was hard to imagine him as a 12 year old who hasn't even hit puberty. What happened with this guy? 

"I'm Dhruva by the way. Nice to meet you. If you guys need more people for helping others awaken, let me know."

"Will do! I'm Soovam. Hope we can help each other in the future." he nodded with a sign of acceptance.

I checked my status to see how far my Prana points had accumulated and got pleasantly surprised. The upper cap of my Prana stat has increased to 14 from 10. That means more Kundalini. Nice!!!

I need to give a thorough check to my status properly, it's been a while since I've done it. I have to crack the problem of distributing Kundalini and Shakti simultaneously through my vessels. I needed some advice from Saiyan. Finding him in one of the tables, sitting far away from me, I matched my time with his, to leave the hall, breaking the order of emptying seats. Some people gave me "what is he doing" looks but I was hungry for clues. Maybe finding the actual answer itself was part of the training. But a little clue might help in quickening the process.

S: "Look at you! So eager to learn what she said." Saiyan said with a teasing smile. 

D: "Oh, there was that too. I had a different question actually." 

S: "Unfortunately, she said that it was fine. She didn't mind what you said. No need to apologise directly." Saiyan recalled the news giving me a sympathetic look.

D: "Seriously bro? What's that look for? It works better for me actually. No need to waste time thinking how to frame sentences for the apology. If she's cool, I don't need to burden myself with unnecessary worries. I was just doing it for the peace of my mind. But on a different note, tell me whatever is allowed to share regarding circulating the Kundalini to increase the conductivity. I'm not able to consciously make the energy flow through the vessels in a way I want. I'm using the skills but the vessels aren't getting faster in carrying Kundalini. Also, you're absorbing Shakti and circulating Kundalini through the same vessels right? So we can't do both at the same time, right?"

"That was actually a good question. One of the many we had asked to the senior sages when we started out." Saiyan said with an apologetic smile. S: "We are supposed to figure out all this by ourselves. Apparently this training will create the differences within the structure of the vessels between two individuals. Not everybody has a similar internal structure of Kalpa's sap vessels. The sages refused to give us a set way as it will only bind us to a pre-existing method, leaving no leeway for evolution or innovation. So try different things out. What works for you or me won't work for others and vice versa."

"Well then, thanks for the tip. You might feel that it wasn't helpful but your talk about flexibility fired up my brain for a moment. I'll try some things. See you at dinner." I said and we separated again for the day. There was this idea that suddenly came to my mind from Saiyan's words. I can't wait to try it out.

Hurrying back to my cave, I sat a bit away from the Shakti Rekha. It wasn't time yet. I needed to rearrange my vessels in a way that suits best for me. Watching the wardens perform Charm Creation also gave me this idea. I also needed Panna's sap for this to work. So without her, again, this idea won't come to fruition. 

"If you can accomplish whatever you have thought out, it will be crazy. Let's try once and see what happens." Panna supported me positively. 

"Okay, let's go. Hopefully I can do it better this time, since I can focus, unlike last time when my mind was in shambles, being unable to persevere the intensity of Shakti. I can change the location of your sap in my body right?" I confirmed with her.

"I'm not sure, atleast you won't die if you try, so feel free." she replied back. "If things go south, I'll take the reins."

"Yeah, thanks." I said and started focusing to make numerous mini hands inside my body this time. I had heard from my brother one day who was studying biology a few years ago, that we have two types of blood vessels, one for good blood and the other for the blood containing impurities from different parts of the body. I will learn about it in detail after some years, but this will be enough context to move forward. The sap vessels before were only a few dozens in number before, but now I needed more as their functionalities will be divided. Imagining two mini hands stripping the sap vessels into smaller ones, as if tearing away thin strips from a piece of paper I increased the number of sap vessels. They weren't budging before, but after Panna adviced me not to force them but ask them gently, the vessels complied. Now there were hundreds of thin snakes floating inside my body, wondering where to go, and waiting for me to lead them properly. I slowly moved the mass of Panna's sap from my hand to the place right above where my muladhara chakra was. What I realised from before was: The Kundalini flowing through Panna's sap can be controlled by both me and her. If I'm too focused on something, Panna can help me with automatic activation of skills. Both Panna's sap and my chakra points will be responsible for holding kundalini, which theoretically should allow me to store twice the amount compared to others. Since Panna had a very little amount of sap within me, it was best to use it as a small Auxiliary chakra point instead of making vessels from it. I took a little less than half of the snakes inside, making them bite my inner skin at newer places covering as much surface space as possible, and joined their tails to the main root chakra point. After that, whatever less than half amount I kept aside, was separated into smaller length pieces, which connected my auxiliary chakra to the root chakra. This part was hard, working with really thin and small vessels. I had to focus quite a bit as if I was threading a needle. The other half went around travelling within my body and again returning back to the auxiliary chakra point. The setup was now complete. I shifted closer to the Shakti Rekha and started feeding my intake vessels. With a sudden jolt of excruciating pain, I fell back retreating away from it.

"No no no.... the amount of Shakti was too much for my now thin vessels to handle." I started panicking. Was it a wrong approach?? I probed into my body and found torn away pieces of vessels floating around in my body. A feeling of horror clutched my heart...will I not be able to absorb Shakti again?? I was too impertinent, not thinking about this simple thing ahead. I just assumed the sap vessels were almighty. 

"Calm down!" Panna's voice was hard and definite. "It will take some time, but you need to make the smaller snakes bite the tails of the other ones, leaving a few that will be attached to your skin. Don't panic and start it at once. Everything is fine!!"

Yes, I needed to rejoin them. This time I'll join three snakes to make the vessels thicker. I'll have lesser amount of intake ones but it's fine. Concentrate. Concentrate.

Taking a deep breath, I again started the excruciatingly long process of making the vessels longer and thicker. I heard the bells for dinner but skipped it. I haven't used any Prana points yet, so I'll handle a little hunger. The setup was complete after who knew how many hours. My clothes were drenched in sweat making me wonder why I didn't go naked beforehand. I was so excited with my idea that I forgot to take care of even the little things. How careless can I even be? I was honestly disappointed with myself, losing so much time over nothing. I should have considered a trial run with a single intake vessel, making it thinner slowly to see it's breaking point. Then applied it on to the other ones. Just a simple solution, but it totally skipped my mind. 

"I didn't imagine the consequences properly before taking the path." I still have a lot to do, and so much more to learn.

"Let's try again." I again sat over the Shakti line, letting it enter my body. Please don't break. I had already tried out once with three snakes, hopefully it'll apply to others too. This time, about a dozen more broke away, but it was still successful. I made six vessels joining two of them together, from the dozen that were broken away and again attached them to outside. A few vessels broke away from a different part again as I kept repeating the cycle. But I could definitely feel both my chakra points getting filled up slowly. Panna's chakra point won't be able to filter kundalini from Shakti being different from a Chakra anatomically, so as soon some of it was filtered by the root, she intervened and started sucking up kundalini from it. Once it was filled up, I overflowed the distribution vessels. After that, the root chakra was left to do what it was meant for, storing and creating kundalini while filtering out Shakti.

Now we have to try it with the skills. I activated both field of protection and Recovery skills, got naked and started abusing myself. I realised that whenever the mouth of the intake vessels were wounded they stopped taking in Shakti and retreated into the body waiting for it to heal back. Which places are least likely to get injured during a fight? I gave the intake vessels new positions on my body. It ranged from the arm pits, to my inner thighs, places which were really personal. If someone ever scanned my vessels they would label me as a pervert. There was one vessel that remained default throughout all the trials and tribulations of my training. It wouldn't budge no matter what. It connected my main chakra to the the outside through the little finger of my left hand. There must be some reason, but I had to no clue to go deeper into the topic.

This time it took much longer to deplete both my chakra points while using the skills. I was concentrating on absorbing shakti, while Panna was responsible for transferring filtered kundalini from the main to auxiliary, as well as activating my skills. We exchanged roles after some time, but realised she couldn't force the main chakra to act as she wanted. So she was given the job of only making sure that the auxiliary one kept feeding itself from the root chakra. Taking care of two things at once was tough but somehow manageable. I would suddenly stop intaking Shakti or deactivate my skills being unable to concentrate. I felt my intake vessels growing thicker slowly, along with the increase in conductivity of my distribution vessels. The green light of field of protection also grew in intensity. We came up with semi manual mode and automatic modes for names of these two cases. Thinking that I didn't even need to convert my Prana because of the efficient system, I decided to activate wood Flesh all over my body to use up the energy faster. Wood Flesh, I found out, grew stronger the more kundalini I fed. At Max capacity, it burned through whatever was left within five minutes. I converted 13 points of Prana over the next three hours, which worked in tandem with Shakti Intake and filtering, to fill in Kundalini whenever the filtration process of root chakra couldn't keep up with the expenses. After my Prana points reached 1, I started the chakra filling method again without expending any of it instantly. I wanted to see how long field of protection, recovery and wood flesh could be used together when I start with a full capacity. I was surprised with the results. Only expecting it to work for ten or fifteen minutes, I was shocked as it crossed twenty five minutes. Even after all this, I'll probably find people continuing for hours, probably. Well again, this is something I came up with, and I'm happy with how it turned out despite all the hiccups.

I decided to take a nap, all naked still, until I heard the bells for breakfast.

It was a drag to wear my clothes again. Now I realised why all the sadhus in the Himalayas moved around naked. There was something liberating in donning my birthday suit, but...now I'm embarrassed of even thinking about it. I'm starting to get really weird, I thought to myself as I dressed up and reached the pool to wash my face in the cold water.

I skipped a step as I saw the girl from yesterday, Somi, sitting with her bare feet paddling inside the water. 

I remembered my dream and cursed my stupid hormones. Out of all the dreams I could remember, why was this one the most vivid? Our eyes met for a millisecond as I kneeled down to slap the cool water over my face. Should I apologize? She said there's no need right? I'll just go back for breakfast, since my stomach is killing me with hunger. I didn't feel the pressure yet since I had skipped meals yesterday. I'll try sitting in the stalls for a while after breakfast. As I started walking away, I heard her voice, " I thought you wanted to apologize?"

D: "And I thought you were cool with it."  

S: "I thought I was, but I suddenly got curious when thinking about it after training. I came here getting a gut feeling that I would come across you today. Just a bonus over my self reflection time."

I stepped back to where I was kneeling down and also sat with my legs dipped into the water.

D: "Honestly, I was on my way to relieve myself. The longer one. And you stopped me suddenly accusing me of something I wasn't . I probably also got angry that my body features in the dark made you think I was an Asura. That probably hit me the most. Did you think I was a goblin or something? So yeah, both the feelings of irritation derived from holding something back and the insult made me use harsh words unnecessarily." I was surprised at the flow of words coming out of me one after another. This was unlike me. "I totally ignored the hard work you might have put in, assuming you were simply talented just because you were one of the chosen students. Ah, also the fact that you could already materialise your kundalini made me jealous. That was all I guess. So yeah, I'm sorry for acting like that."

S: "That was a believable answer. And a genuine apology. I will accept it. But why are you jealous? You aren't lagging behind at all."

D: "Wait, you can see my current condition? People also have powers like that? This is so unfair."

She chuckled brightly. "It's not a power. You have activated your chakra but haven't learnt to hide it properly yet. Yesterday it was only like a little film covering your body. But a fierce red fire is burning around you now. People who already have awakened their chakra will easily notice it. You are continuously circulating your kundalini within your vessels right? You have to stop doing that. Try it."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. In semi manual mode, I was the one responsible for the kundalini movement within the distribution vessels. I gently willed the kundalini to stop wherever they were and stay stagnant inside the vessels. It hated to be bounded like that but kundalini inherently was better at listening than Shakti. It slowed down and stopped in its tracks. I filled my intake vessels with Shakti to the brim to make sure no more of it could enter, stagnating the intake vessels too. It was quite easy to do, but without the information you wouldn't even think about doing it.

"Thanks for the tip." I said getting up. It's been a few minutes since the breakfast bells rang. I needed to recover my Prana points too, so skipping it wasn't an option.

"Let's go." she also stood up from her position stopping me in my tracks.

"It will be better if you go first. I don't want to put a target on my back." I said and waited for her to leave.

I heard a slight giggle as she disappeared into the jungle. She was fast.

I dragged my zombie ass to the Dining Hall and started eating. I waved at Saiyan when our eyes met from far away. Maybe he was making sure that I atleast came for breakfast after skipping dinner. There were one third of the students who didn't know about cloaking their kundalini and stood out like Power rangers in the wild. Most of them were either green, orange, red or yellow. There were other people who probably have also walked the same path of self humbling like me.

After breakfast, I waited around to talk with Saiyan.

"You've also learnt cloaking. Someone else is helping you other than me right? I feel jealous now." Saiyan teased me.

"It was just a tip from an acquaintance." I dismissed it like it was something insignificant.

"You met her didn't you?" he suddenly teased. This damned mind reading...

S: "I guessed so, only we know about cloaking right now. So someone who's an acquaintance other than me, and from the seven people is only her. I was surprised to find you not shining among all the other students."

It suddenly crossed my mind that Soovam also wasn't emanating anything when we talked yesterday. He was also getting help from one of the chosen ones probably. He already knew about cloaking by yesterday. 

"Oh by the way," Saiyan continued, remembering something. "Yesterday you were asking about skills right? If you like drawing, you can start with Aksharas. You know stick figures right? You can imbue Kundalini into the symbols to realise them into the world. Charm creation will be derived from it in future. The runes will slowly get more complicated and take more time to complete, how fast you can complete them becomes the most important factor in these skills. The more detailed they are, the more kundalini you can imbue and more powerful the effects will be. Just try drawing something by emanating your kundalini like you're using a pencil instead of spreading it everywhere. Try it. You'll be able to do it."

"Got it. I hope your training is also going well. By the way, what are you guys planning to do during Rakshak Vrata?" I asked looking around to make sure no one was around us. "You have already drunk that Amrita no? Will you consume it twice?"

He got surprised for a moment, but came to terms with it real soon. Probably he was wondering how I came to know that.

S: "We are supposed to help the seniors from the side lines to farm as much experience as possible. Don't tell it to anybody, but just getting a hit will give you enough exp for levelling up at the beginning. It will get progressively harder later on, but right now the faster we level up the better."

I felt like the fact that he was getting such undue advantages over us was making him feel guilty. That's why he was giving me these bits of information to make himself feel better. Who cares? I'm getting the benefits after all.

We again parted and went on our ways. Two more days left before the Vrata. I need to start preparing. That 'getting a hit' information was precious as a diamond. I need to develop some method that will maximize the number of hits I can make, while also optimising the amount of kundalini used for each of them. 

I activated automatic mode where Panna took care of retrieving the stored kundalini while also activating my skills, as I started drawing shapes in the air with my ring finger, trying to imitate what the wardens had done. Something I needed lots of. Ants? I tried drawing an ant with two dots, one small and one longer, followed by six bended lines for legs. The kundalini left my body and started floating away instead of staying together like those videos of water I have seen floating in the space station. The two dots didn't stay together and moved away like the two actors driving away in two different directions in that famous music video with most amount of views.

"It's really been a long day." I thought to myself, right after breakfast, wondering how to crack this new problem. Controlling the kundalini within our body is manageable, but after it went outside, it felt like the connection between us was severed forcefully. I have to try with a small problem and build up upon it, not dive in head first. I released a fist sized red kundalini from my ring finger and let it float in front of me. I tried establishing a mental connection with it like I have with Panna. I tried touching it as it deformed and floated away from me. I saw that it stayed like that instead of regaining its previous almost spherical structure. Is this like sculpting instead? I thought while touching it again. I pinched at one end of the kundalini sphere with a bent side, and made a pointed end. I chuckled, "Looks like a really huge bee." 

If different blobs of kundalini repel each other, I will have to make something from the same blob of kundalini it seems. Continuing with the shape of a bee in my mind, I pinched and pulled from the top of the shape to bring out two deformed wings. Then twisting six threads by pulling from the sides. Then I made two indentations for the three body sections. I got confused once, are there three parts or two? Well let's go with what's already done. I finally made an antenna on each side of its head and ended my sculpting project. The bee kept floating like a dead fish in an aquarium. Okay, let's try again. I slowly released Kundalini again, trying not to push it during the process so that it keeps floating near me then tried making an elongated snake. It also floated around my body like a satellite. By this time, my auxiliary chakra point was already depleted and it started vigorously borrowing energy from the root chakra. Float, float float, two indentations, six legs, big mandibles, ant done. Next! pinch top for the beak, two wings extending out, flat tail, two thin stick legs, bird done. Dead Kundalini animals kept floating around me without life. Some were completed, some were half done, being too hard for a small blob to take after its shape. It's not working, prompting me to think something was missing in my own understanding. It's tough to gain an understanding with only bits of clues everytime. I stopped everything and this time, activated field of protection, recovery, wood flesh and bonk to make the space inside the cave bigger. I needed to see how many bonks I can use before getting empty. It counted to about 23 times. Not enough, and I doubt people will let me come to the front lines to get hits like that from a close range. Do I learn using a bow? I don't think it's possible to learn it properly within two days either. It was really frustrating. I went back for lunch to replenish Prana and came across Somi and her three friends while walking out of the hall after I was done. She flicked her wrist, extending out two fingers without raising her hand as a greeting, and I returned a slight nod. She looked pretty cute with a pony tail. Not again, I thought hurrying away. 

"I think you need help." Prana chimed in. My mind was quite lonely, I realised, as soon as her voice intruded my mind like a bright sunshine. I decided to take a bathroom break and freshen myself up before returning. 

"That is actually something I think I might really need." I answered after a long time after going through my bathing routine. 

"See, your root chakra purifies Shakti into Earth based Kundalini. Different chakra points have different attributes. Try to make Earth based animals, ones that stay within the earth, preferably. They'll do whatever you think about while creating them." Panna explained stopping me in my tracks.

Oh, she was talking about this kind of help. On a different note, what was I thinking while creating those animals? I have been thinking them to be Kundalini while creating them, not animals. I have been wanting them to float first of all, closer to me so I can modify them. That's why all they have been doing is floating. 

"Yes." Panna agreed with me. "Small clues actually go a long way. Don't you ever underestimate them."

"Thank you Ma'am!!!!!" I started running towards my spot with ideas flowing into my head. 

Think about what you want them to do while creating them. Make creatures living within the earth for better efficiency. I knew what I had to do now. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I came out of the cave soaking wet with my sweat as if I was suddenly caught under a rain shower.

The time after the lunch and now have been lonely, but full of determination and hard work. In a few words, it was my best effort. All this time, I have been holed up within the cave, drawing out kundalini and absorbing shakti continuously. I didn't expend my Prana for conversion and only used up a little whenever I felt hungry to get rid of that feeling. Today was the fifth day of coming to the Ashrama, and the day of Rakshak Vrata. Where we take a vow of protecting this Satya Marta from the invasion of Asuras who wants to conquer the Lokas above Patala(Underworld) for themselves. Why would they do that? Ofcourse, both the Asuras and Devatas have some conflicting self serving reason. I was just born on one side. But if I see someone coming to kill me, will I not defend myself? From Saiyan's warnings and the information that both our senior classes are arriving to protect us, it might be a large scale invasion. I can predict that much. What kind of enemies will be there? Will my idea even work? Where will the enemies even come from when we are surrounded by mountains on every side? We'll see when it's time I guess. After taking the Vrata, we will be provided with the Sanjeevani Amrita, which from the name seems to be some version of the elixir of life. I might get to know the specifics later on during the ritual itself.

I went to the pool to freshen up and drink some cool water and as expected there she was, looking at me. Today she had a braid that came down her right shoulder. Now that I looked carefully, she had some brown streaks over her pitch black hair giving it some highlight. I sat about 3 meters along the circumference of the pool away from her. 

"You are now able to hide your kundalini perfectly. Good job!" she started the conversation. 

I would be lying if I wasn't looking forward to this meeting up fiasco we have been engaging in. 

"Thanks to you." I said as I lied down with my legs still inside the water. I could feel little drops of water pecking at my face from the waterfall above. We stayed like that for more than ten minutes. The silence wasn't awkward at all. It felt right to just not make a sound right now.

Bird. Flap. Wings. Beak. Legs. Tail. I repeated in my mind as I kneaded my Kundalini to make a bird out of it. It shone bright red in the orange sunrise.

There was a hidden command there too, as it glided through the air and perched right beside her.

Somi stretched out her hand opening her palm allowing the bird to hop on. She scratched it under the beak twice and let it go with an upward motion with her hands. It was only after so many tries that I was able to create something that didn't have the properties of earth. The bird flew up against the waterfall and disappeared after all its energy got depleted. 

"Best of luck levelling up today." I said still looking up.

"Yeah."

We stayed like that for ten more minutes after which I got up and left the scene. Need to make sure I don't get any distractions during the whole ritual. I have no idea how long the invasion will last, so I need to clear everything in my system thoroughly. Not drinking water for one and a half days almost made me dehydrated. So much pain accompanied with my short toilet release. I should often go to the pool and drink some water from now on. I can't keep neglecting my body.

Freshening up, I somehow stumbled to my room to find a new set of clothes there for the ritual. Changing into them one by one we all went for breakfast. The whole team was back now. 

"What is the condition of you guys right now?" Anik asked before everybody.

S: "Pretty good."

Me: "Will be enough."

D: "Hopefully it'll be fine."

We had some Poha with eggs and chai for breakfast. The eggs shot up my Prana points really fast. I was also surprised that I wasn't as exhausted I used to be when my Prana points depleted sharply before.

After breakfast, we gathered infront of the huge Banyan tree where all the sages had gathered. I realised that I knew none of their names. I'll know once I start taking lessons I hope. There was a huge sacrificial fire at the middle. Various leaves, flowers, offerings, and utensils dotted the space around the fire. We sat in the same row and column formation, boys in the right and girls to the left, as denoted by the position of our dorms.

I heard hymns being chanted from the sages and the name of Agni Deva being repeated. Were they summoning....

The flames suddenly turned to a pillar of magma as a three meter humanoid being emerged from it. It was hard to even look at him. 

"Don't worry, I'll protect the place. May my fire be your strength. And let it burn away all your enemies. I bless this Ashrama with my divine flames. Let none be able to cross it with the intention of harming the precious Guardians." Agni Deva blessed us. His whole body was on fire, red hair floated above him as if the flames of a fiery volcano. His eyes shone with the vigor of a hundred suns. I closed my eyes fearing I might go blind. A fiery divine wall erupted in a 2 kilometer radius around the Banyan tree. It made sure to put every facility within its boundaries. Cracks formed in the space all around us, along the perimeter of the flame barrier. Seniors walked in with various weapons that were burning with the energy of different shades of Kundalini. It was EPIC. Damn, I can't wait to get one year older to make an entrance like that.

"We are short on time. Let's complete the ritual first!" The head sage with knotted beard announced. "Sanjeevani Amrita is an artificial elixir we have created using the Amrita as a base and the Sanjeevani Mantra as a catalyst. While pure Amrita is not compatible with mortals, this has been gifted by the Gods in return for a vow of protecting the upper Lokas from the vicious Asuras. Be pure in your intentions and feel the blessings of the Gods. As soon as you're done with the ritual, make sure to return to the dorms and not interfere with your seniors. You are not ready yet, despite what you wish to believe."

I felt a bit irritated at the blatant biasness that was unfolding in front of me. The seven chosen were somewhere in the crowd of seniors, farming exp, while we are supposed to sit back at our dormitories quietly. I triggered the command that prompted my exp farmers to start making their move. I also wasted no time and started kneading my kundalini following my muscle memory that I have trained for hundreds, no, thousands of times in the last two days. I need just a hit, for it to give me enough. As the ritual started, students got up and moved towards the fire. They were given a three leaved stalk dipped in ghee which was to be offered to the fire. Their fingers imitated the pose you do when creating a shadow deer.

Suddenly, the whole ground below us trembled with a disastrous earthquake as if something was forcing it's way out. Huge four meter to five meter humanoid life forms appeared at the tops of the mountains. There were some ten to fifteen meter giants among them too. They carried metallic rods glowing with a bluish and blackish hue Their skin glowed like the awakened students who didn't know how to cloak their energy but with an intensity multiplied by a hundred times. The frightening pressure they released from all around us gave me the same feeling as sitting on that Shakti Rekha brimming with energy. It was so suffocating that many of the students started gasping for breaths or vomiting. 

"Continue. Don't get distracted." The sages shouted with a bold voice. "Your seniors will protect you, believe in them." 

"How long do you think you can continue these practices? Ashwatthama???" A loud voice boomed somewhere from the north. There was a huge 40 meter red skinned guy standing at the top of one of the peaks. To be honest I was just giving a rough estimate. If he looked that big from this far away, he might actually be much larger.

"You imprison us in that barren wasteland leaving us to die, while you enjoy the riches of Swarga. And you rob these young children of their innocence by making them prison guards. I will destroy everything you deceptive Gods stand for." The huge giant's voice kept booming, sending tremors within our ribcages. His bass was turned up to the max.

"Enough of your deceptive words Ahara. A glutton such as you is only meant for destruction. Don't even think about stepping into the sacred Lokas. Stay where you are meant to be. You who swallowed even your own kin to satisfy your hunger is by no means qualified to perceive the beauties of the upper Lokas. Begone, unholy Demon!!" A voice appeared from inside the Banyan tree as if it was the one who was cursing the Danava.I snickered for a second remembering the meme of the guy holding a crucifix. But as a weird red binding filled with ancient Akshara(symbols) appeared around the eyes of Ahara, I shivered. To see a high level curse attacking such a massive enemy out of nowhere disturbed me greatly. If mere words contained so much power, how can I even defend myself against it? The Danava fell from a huge height being unable to perceive its surroundings as it went blind, throwing us a few centimetres up into the air with a massive shockwave as soon as it made an impact. The other Asuras, which is a collective term used for representing most of the Patala Loka beings, started running down the mountains as if defying gravity itself. I was surprised at the fact that most of us stayed calm under the circumstances. The mountain slopes filled up with innumerable massive beings, hurtling towards the barrier at break neck speed, leaving not a speck of snow or greenery on it. Wherever I looked, colorful humanoids, Nagas, mutated bulls, elephants and various other monstrous predators, huge giants, all started trampling everything on their way towards us. The ground rumbled continuously unable to withstand their thunderous steps. It was finally my time.

"Come out, my cute little farmers." I commanded.