Body transformation
…
"The martial Mystery as you've heard is the first foundation, it's called the mortal foundation, hence the nickname mortal realm. In actuality, martial Mystery isn't really the name of the rank, its body transformation. The body transformation rank… just like it sounds like, this is simply the transformation of the body from mortal to Mystery. Martial Mystery is just a colloquial name for it." Instructor Welsh tickled with his tactical watch which seem a wee bit different from the ones the students had on, when he was done, behind him an LFD (Light Field Display) image of a genderless human body appeared. There was a mini version on every occupied desk, the diagram separated into three. An image of the human bones, one of the clear view on the blood vessels and muscles, and one transparent one that everything could be seen through.
"There are three tiers in the body transformation rank, no… there are four but we would first talk about these three. Starting with the first tier: the bone transformation." As he spoke the other two images apart from the diagram of the bones faded away with the bones taking center on the LFD.
"How does bone refinement work you must be wondering, its simple really. But first, you have to know that there are seven Mysteries in the human body, they are not in a fixed position for everyone. What I mean is that they are not at the same location for everyone." He paused thinking of a better way to explain it for the benefit of those of common origin. "An example, so our first Mystery doesn't have to be located by ourselves, but not everyone's first Mystery would be located in the same place after awakening. The gateway to mine may be in my head and yours could also be in your head. But they could also be totally different. Mind you the Mysteries are not a physical manifestation, so its not like if yours is located in your eyes then if you lose your eyes it's gone… that would be incorrect."
"Hypothetically, a martial Mystery could locate and connect to his second and third Mystery, I've never seen it happen nor even heard of it but it's true. It's just harder to do, but the gain is just as massive as its pain if not more." He said it with an encouraging smile as though goading them into attempting it.
"Yes Branan? Can I help you?" he asked his 'favorite' cadet whose hand was raised up, only indulging his question because he took the proper steps this time.
"Won't that be a waste of time if we pursue something so esoteric, thereby neglecting our main focus." Branan asked without any intentions of a verbal jab. He genuinely wanted to know.
"Good question Branan, I was coming to that in a bit, but why not. Sensing the location of your next Mystery in a sense is something we've all been doing unconsciously from the moment we became Mysterys. Branan what is that thing I speak about?" he looked at Branan with an expectant gaze making him understand that his wasn't a rhetorical question.
Branan looked at him in surprise not expecting the return question, gave an uncertain answer. "Meditation?"
"Yes, Branan meditation is correct, but it's a little deeper than that. I this case, our meditation has to be intentional. When we meditate what do we do? Cordelia… "
The blue haired Cordelia of the ocean spirits clan with her blue hair and icy expression looked at him pointedly answered from her seat in a flat tone. 'What are your intentions for teaching us something this far removed from what we should know at this stage, what are you up to Welsh?' "When we meditate, we introspect on our affinities/abilities and also we draw power from our opened Mystery using it to refine our bodies." She said in one breath as if talking was a chore.
"Good, good. But in this case, what we want to do is to explore. It is harder, as a body transformation rank Mystery you are searching for the second Mystery in the human body which is connected to the martial spirit's spirit force… of course it would b difficult, that's the realm of geniuses not any average Joe can accomplish that." Welsh wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was goading them anymore, it was now an open ploy… they knew they were being goaded, but who did not think themselves as geniuses.
"I digress, continuing on our topic of focus, bone refinement. How does refinement, or in this case bone refinement work?? It's simple, mystic essence from our opened Mystery or Mysteries is combined with our affinity or affinities to refine our bones and also to fundamentally change the structure of our genes from mortal to Mystery. That is, say you have an affinity for flames, no matter how powerful you get the fact remains that your body cannot handle your own flames. In that case before you can bring harm to your adversary you would have been immolated by your own flames. So refinement enables the unrestricted use of our abilities by increasing our body's affinity to fit our natural abilities." Giving a clear explanation that could not be refuted, Instructor Welsh produced a bottle of water from thin air and took a gulp from it then sent it back where it came from.
A few of the cadets where in awe and confusion witnessing such magical scene for the first time, Chris stared at Instructor Welsh's hand intently as though he was going to automatically understand what had occurred. "Don't be too shocked, he has simply killed a void beast and absorbed the living rune they produce after death. That is the only known way to acquire a storage space. Pesky and very dangerous things, think of them as assassins… you cannot feel them or see them. They could pop out at any time and you'd be dead before you know it, at least that's what my bubba used to say."
While Naliaki explained to Chris the origins of a storage space, Welsh looked at his tactical watch which was giving a beep sound only he could hear. "Would you look at that, it looks like our time has elapsed. We would continue this class tomorrow."
The LFD went off as Welsh walked of the teaching platform and out of the class not minding the cacophony of sounds the students made in the wake of his leave, he had other things to see to.