As Erza walked into the front garden she saw Mikasa sparring with Luka. As soon as Mikasa's eyes caught onto Erza's figure she immediately ran to her shouting, "Master!" She happily hugged onto Erza's waste and smiled as she felt so much comfort and pureness radiating off of her master. When Erza wasn't in a bad mood or facing an enemy she would have an approachable aura that welcomed everyone.
"Today, I am going to help you unlock your first meridian, but first I need to properly teach you about cultivation" Erza said.
"But that's boring," Mikasa's whined. Erza glared at Mikasa making her tiny hairs stand up all over her body, she nodded in agreement giving in to Erza's terrifying stare.
"Let us take a walk whilst I explain the basics of cultivation," Erza suggested as she started to walk. Mikasa quickly ran after her in till she stood by Erza's side and walked at the same pace.
"The first thing you need to know is that another word for spiritual energy is qi, the second is that the body has twelve meridians but depending on your cultivation technique it can increase, the cultivation technique I gave you is called 'The twelve oceans,' which I believe would suite you well. There are twelve steps to opening up your meridians, the order is transmit, unify, transform, consolidate, direct, mobilise, purify, protects, align, gather, circulate and gather. These are the steps to opening up your meridians, first you have to open up the twelve basic meridians and then you can start the ones connected to your cultivation technique." Erza thoroughly explained.
Mikasa was a quick learner and understood what Erza said almost immediately.
After two more hours of explaining, Erza finally sat down with Mikasa in the gazebo. As Erza directed Mikasa on how to open up her first meridian Luka and Eveline sat next to Mikasa trying to unlock their twenty-fifth and twenty-third meridian.
Mikasa felt a surge of qi flowing in to her meridian, her meridian was so full it was close to bursting. After two more hours a bright beam of light came out from Mikasa's body. Mikasa was screaming in pain but after a few minutes she felt a relaxing sensation in her dantian, she finally opened her first meridian. Not so long after, Eveline was able to open up her twenty-fourth meridian, the pain was twenty folds more excruciating and her scream was so loud it could make a mountain tumble. Erza created a sound barrier to not alert the guards around the area or there would be a lot of commotion. At the same time Mikasa had to block her ears tightly using her hands to prevent her ears from bleeding, in addition, Luka's external qi was protecting him whilst he was meditating. However, Erza was completely different, she stood there as if this was nothing. A few minutes passed and Eveline finally calmed down. She smiled at herself knowing that she was one step closer to being stronger. Not the strongest, as that title was already taken by the princess which will stick with her for as long as she lived.
Luka was still sitting his with his muscly legs crossed. He was a sweating mess, he was struggling a lot and it was very visible in his facial expression. His face wasn't calm at all, it had desperation written all over it.
"Master, why is there a pool of sweat around Luka," Mikasa questioned.
"Twenty-five meridians might be the maximum amount of power he can hold unless he has someone to help him with the flow of qi," Erza answered.
She walked behind Luka and knelt down slightly, she placed her small, soft hands onto his back and closed her eyes to concentrate better. She transferred some of the qi from her surroundings into Luka and moved it towards his meridian.
Luka's shoulders, that were tensed, relaxed and his facial expression became more calm and less desperate. Just before his meridian was about to explode, Erza let go and walked back to her place and stood next to Mikasa who was now holding onto Eveline. After two more minutes, Luka was finally able breaks his twenty-sixth meridian. The same thing happened, an abundant of pain filled the body which is then replaced with a satisfying feeling of comfort.
As soon as everyone was finished breaking their meridians Erza took down the sound barrier and smiled warmly at everyone.