Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 53: Dawnharbour 6

  "Sir, may I take your measurements," an elf dressed in orange robes asked Benzhi.

 "Hmm," Benzhi queried. He has just stepped out of the portal and was still in the northwest region of the city where the Tower was located. The area seemed to be designed as an exit area, with bench seats, a garden, fountain and wide paths leading to the temple and academy.

 "Sure, um why?" Benzhi asked.

 "For your robes sir. I arrived almost two hours ago and have been waiting," the elf stated.

 Benzhi began to study the Elf, he had a tape measure and had begun taking measurements of height, arm length, inside leg, etc. He did not look like the Fae from the Alpine Forest, although he was of similar height. He was thin, very thin, he had the trademark pointy ears, elongated face and grey eyes. His skin looked pale with a slight shade of grey. He was neither similar to the Myrkalfar nor the Wood Elves. 

 Benzhi viewed the Elf with qi sight. Benzhi now made it a habit to view everyone he met with qi sight, even if it was for an instant, it was a great way to gauge their qi potential, or if they were using any abilities at the time and if they had any qi enabled items. Like his shield.

 The elf had a qi core, smaller than the Gatherers from the Alpine Forest, but much larger than the men from Vaugend, who virtually had no core. What was curious though is his qi circulation was almost non-existent, it was similar to a man from Vaugend despite the much larger qi core. Benzhi was intrigued as this was strange. Fortunately, the elf was busy taking his measurements allowing time to study his qi anatomy. 

 Benzhi closely studied the elf's qi core. It was wrapped in a web of qi threads, the threads were tiny, almost invisible, but since the elf tailor was so close and there was a massive amount of threads making up the web, Benzhi could just make them out.

 If the elf was an AI lump, Benzhi had no idea how it was created, but it did not look like work that was done by QWP, not with what he had just learned. Huineng was the most capable practitioner he had met from QWP so far, and Benzhi would have guessed this was beyond him. Although the wily old man does not show what he is capable of unless it is absolutely necessary.

 The Elven Tailor had finished measuring. "Done sir, where do we deliver?" He asked.

 "Academy, um, Adept teaching quarters, ask for Benzhi," Benzhi replied. He didn't plan to be around when the clothes were ready but he had to keep up appearances. 

 "I know who you are sir," the Elven Tailor replied he looked at Benzhi. Benzhi looked at the Tailor. He seemed closed off, but also he gave Benzhi the slight impression he was sad.

 As Benzhi and the Elven Tailor concluded business the garden started to fill up with students from the Academy. The last natural light had left, it was after sunset, Benzhi wondered what they were up to. And then he heard murmurs, "that's him." Benzhi noticed students weren't walking sedately to the Garden they were running. Some arriving out of breath. They must have heard the announcement and knew where the return portal landed.

  Benzhi was quickly becoming surrounded. The Elven Tailor bowed and left him to the throng. Benzhi wanted to leave with him.

 Benzhi finally spied Takeo and Deng, someone he knew, sort of.

 "What's going on?" Benzhi asked, "is there going to trouble?"

  Deng shook his head. Takeo, who had more confidence spoke up. "No, we saw the system message and came," Takeo declared.

 "Um, why?" Benzhi asked.

 "Don't you know?" Takeo asked in return.

 "No, obviously not. Is this a hazing thing for the first tower run?" Benzhi asked.

  "No!" Takeo exclaimed. "We got the system message and had to come and see. You broke two records and set a third since no one has ever completed the third level. You are now an Enlightened rank, I don't think there any others unless they just handed it to themselves."

 "Come and see what? I look the same as this afternoon," Benzhi stated.

 "When does your class start," someone called out.

  "I'm not sure, depends on how tomorrows healing goes," Benzhi would have to gain access to the Land Core and would do that by continuing to heal the VIPs. Gaining a favour from the Seneschal would come in handy if he could find a way to destroy the tumour. He needed to contemplate what to ask for, there were so many spinning dishes at the moment Benzhi did not know his left from right.

 All he wanted to do right now was to get the fuck out of here and damn the consequences. The myrkalfar daughter was so far above him and the QWP he did not fear them anymore. The fear of the QWP was replaced quite squarely with their investor, for want of a better term. Right now, he had no idea what to do with QW9 let alone the students. His three stated goals were already in disarray, on the very first day. 

 Benzhi came to a decision quickly. He would continue on as planned until he could think of a new course. Best not to send alarming signals until he was going to escape.

  "Listen," Benzhi stood on top of a stone bench and addressed the crowd, "there is nothing to see here. I will come to the Arena as soon as my class is ready to begin. If all goes well tomorrow I will be there at midday, but the healing of my patient takes precedence. So if it runs longer, it will run longer."

 "How did you smash all the records, how did you beat the third level?" Someone called.

 "Perhaps after six months of classes and hard training, you will know the answers to those questions. I can tell you this. Nothing good comes easy," Benzhi had to have a dig at the aids system. 

 "That is all," Benzhi waved his arm, dismissing the students, some of which were older than him, cutting off further questions.

 He heard more chatter as he pushed through the crowd back towards the Academy, "lucky Anastasia...how did she get close to him? Probably...you know..." then he heard another voice, "Anastasia is not what she seems..." the female voice sounded jealous, it wasn't directed at Benzhi but her group in general. Benzhi turned to try and pinpoint the speaker. He had no chance, there were students milling about everywhere. There were over a hundred in the gardens now.

  Benzhi raced back to his dorm, leaving the students in his wake. He shivered, that was not something he expected. They still treated this like a game, it was the furthermost thing from it.

 "Old man," Benzhi called as he entered the dorm. Huineng was sitting on his bed meditating.

 "Benzhi, I see you return unkilled," Huineng welcomed him back. Anastasia had made herself at home sitting on a chair, she dropped the book she was reading onto her lap.

 "We need to talk," Benzhi said.

  The old man nodded, "I think you will need to meditate nearly the whole night, I have discovered something since returning from the tower."

 "What?" Benzhi asked, not more bad news he hoped.

 "I have been meditating for two hours and normally that would refill half my qi core. Qi is replenishing at a slower rate than you are used to in this place," Huineng stated, "It has to do with the planar level and the time dilation if I were to guess, it is not surprising."

 "Oh great, more good news. I am liking this place less with every passing moment," Benzhi said. "I will meditate now, my news is not urgent we can discuss in the morning."

  Anastasia just sat in the chair and read. Making no move to go back to her quarters as the pair meditated.

  Benzhi required a few hours sleep per night. When he finished meditating Anastasia was fast asleep in the chair. He would have sent her back to her dorm if she was awake. But no harm was being done. He went to sleep.

 Much to his chagrin, Benzhi was awoken by a visit from the Elf Tailor and his assistants. 'Had they worked all night?' Benzhi speculated. They had created a beautiful set of white robes for him, it did not go unnoticed that neither Anastasia nor Huineng had their new robes yet. They had been measured yesterday while Benzhi was in the tower on the third floor.

 The robes were made from bamboo fibre, similar to the clothing that the Fae had made for him months ago. It was light, strong and breathed beautifully. The robes had a hood that could be worn up or down and no sleeves, leaving his arms bare. The skirt finished just past the knees and was partitioned so it would not impede when running. The colours were a mixture of pure white, off-white with a dash of very light grey

 His hair was now pure white as well, making for a striking look. In his new robes he appeared to have some colour on his skin, the slight tan was more apparent. The Tailor had created white sashes which crisscrossed around his waist and over his shoulder. The Tailor demonstrated to Benzhi how he could use these to hold his sword or a pouch simply by tieing them. The sashes appeared to be very strong.

 "It is an auspicious day to welcome an Enlightened," the Tailor announced when Benzhi was dressed.

 Benzhi merely nodded and expressed his thanks, "Thank you Tailor, I am sorry that you worked all night for this, it was not necessary."

 "We hope that the Enlightened will bestow great change," The Elven Tailor said nervously and left promptly.

 Benzhi, Huineng and Anastasia arrived at the Grandmasters office at dawn. Benzhi had determined not to treat Anastasia any different by asking her not to follow, there was nothing to see that wasn't known to the powers in QWP in this instance anyway. All he would need to do is keep sensitive information between himself and Huineng in qi communication where it would be kept private. 

  The Grandmaster was his surly self, Benzhi began to wonder if his reticence in giving Benzhi access to the Land Core had something to do with the problems with the shield. The fact he had access during his daily healings was a godsend. 

 He had to assume the Myrkalfar would take action if the situation was not rectified to their satisfaction. Benzhi needed to do at least one thing before they took action, other than escape. He needed to learn everything he could about portals and do what he could to protect himself and the Alpine Forest if he ran. He needed information. On the Elves, on how far the dealings went and on the portals.

 "Grandmaster, kindly step aside and allow access to the Land Core, I want to be ready when the Seneschal arrives," Benzhi stated.

 Grumbling and threatening the Grandmaster moved a few paces back, "I have taken records of every setting. I warn you again, do not meddle." He then found a chair and made himself comfortable. Never taking his eyes off Benzhi or the Core.

 The Seneschal arrived smiling.

 "I am told we have success, the team has injected a dye into my brain which should be viewable by your qi healing ability. This has been done in the past when studying lumps," The Seneschal stated. 

 Benzhi had to wonder, who studied the lumps? It surely had to be someone with qi sight. Benzhi nodded and engaged qi sight, the Seneschal was correct, there was an image of his earthly brain overlaying the QW9 lumps. Studying it closely Benzhi could recognise the tumour, at least its outline. The image was not high definition, it was blurry, but it was a massive improvement on flying blind.

 "This is good," Benzhi announced, "plan B was not going to be pretty, but I had come up with one."

 "Oh, do tell," The Seneschal asked.

 "I would travel back to my Earthly body and study your scans until I memorized them and come back to heal you. This method is much more preferable, it will allow a good level of accuracy, however, there are risks," Benzhi said.

 "I am content. I know the risks and the risk of doing nothing is far greater," replied the Seneschal.

 Benzhi wondered why they didn't trade sacrifices to the Myrkalfar for healing, there must be a reason, it seemed they had traded for a lot of other services. Namely, a city, the shield and portals to name a few.

  Benzhi nodded, "Sit and we will commence."

  Benzhi started perusing the Land Cores database. No one would know if he was qi healing, planning the qi healing or just sitting daydreaming. He checked the pages on Elves first. He had to sift through information on job roles, population, even hours of sleep and work for each group and there were hundreds of groups. When he saw information on qi harvesting, there seemed to be a net gain per day coming from the Elves in terms of qi back to the Core. This did not help him work out if they were lumps or people turned into slaves, but it certainly hinted at the latter. Why would ai lumps effect a qi net positive?

  Next Benzhi perused details of the shield. It consumed a massive amount of qi per day. In addition so did operating the portals. Interestingly enough the tower had no controls.

 Lastly, Benzhi investigated the time dilation, it also used a massive amount of qi Core. This was probably the issue, as it sped time up, the harvest did not speed up relative to it, the harvest yield stayed the same. Benzhi imagined the shield consumed more qi not less as well. He did not take a record of the previous day, but, going by what he was seeing and how would a Myrkalfar Daughter of such power be less competent than the stupid Grandmaster, the time dilation was causing a net negative of Core Qi Energy per day. This would cause the shield to fail in a week unless something was changed.

  Benzhi had spent an hour studying the Land Core data, without changing anything, all that had to be done to reverse the daily drain of qi was reverse the time dilation; if that were possible or difficult, he did not know. It sure as hell would not be popular.

  Benzhi began to focus on the Senechal drawing qi from the Land Core, he began to destroy the centre of the region that the tumour was located. Benzhi worked his way out slowing down when he reached the edges, because the tumour was cancerous he wanted to get each and every cell if possible. However, in doing this he had to be extremely careful not to destroy living brain cells in the same region.

 Benzhi refined his qi sight, focusing as much as he could at the edges of the affected area. During the qi healing, Seneschal Cain was wide awake, it also seemed he was in no pain. Benzhi recalled seeing something on a TV drama where patients were awake during brain surgery. He didn't even bother checking, if the Seneschal got into too much pain he would let them know and they would just have to knock him out.

 Benzhi felt he was finished, there was only a minuscule amount of highlighted areas untouched. He had to make a decision, he would either leave them alone or destroy the area and attempt regrowth cycling through different patterns until he determined a working pattern. Benzhi thought about asking the Seneschal, but, he felt confident in attempting to regrow the cells, even if this small amount were unsuccessful they would be destroyed by the cancerous tumour cells in due course.

 Benzhi destroyed the cells in the regions as finely as he could manage. He had improved his manipulation skills just from completing the third level of the Tower. That thread web was good training, he would have to design something like it to train on one day.

 After destroying the cells, Benzhi began to cycle through different shapes and patterns attempting to get some regrowth started. After trying over a thousand types, in a rapid fashion, he had regrown a small area, however, it was larger than the amount he had destroyed. He was quite happy with the success. Given time and mammoths amounts of qi resources he could probably regrow the entire region where the tumour had been located. At this moment he had neither the time nor could the city spare the qi resource for millions of trial and error attempts.

 Benzhi sat back, opening his eyes, "we are done."

 "Successful?" asked the Grandmaster sitting on the edge of his chair.

 Benzhi looked at the Seneschal, "Yes," the Seneschal said, "I could feel it happening, but it didn't hurt." 

  "You will not know for sure until you have a scan of your Earthly brain," Benzhi said.

  The Seneschal nodded, "it will be scanned today, we will meet back here tomorrow morning, if confirmed, you have a favour to ask, you may ask it then or hold on to it." 

 Benzhi, Huineng and Anastasia headed towards the arena.  

 "We are early," Benzhi stated, "I will meditate until midday, the qi regeneration is so slow here I am still not fully recuperated from the tower run."

 The pair nodded and Benzhi meditated until midday. 

 He was sitting at the edge of the field in the arena and when he opened his eyes he saw the stands packed with not only students but teachers and the Chancellor. There would have been over three hundred people. 'That would be everyone,' Benzhi thought.

 The Chancellor glared at Benzhi with murderous intent.

Chapter end