The masked man spread out both of his arms and exclaimed in a passionate tone "You are the special few born with blood of our lord. "
"And I, I am your instructor. You may call me Rook"
He bowed his head sightly, palms clasped together. "In this world, ki is everything." A soft voice emerged from underneath the mask
"Ki!. Where have I heard that before." Noah's brows pricked up, He came to a realization "Codex!."
"Ki is the very life blood of the soul, The key to unlimited possibilities." The man continued speaking.
"The energy that resides within all living creatures." Noah completed the quote in his head. A mix of excitement and anxiety washing over him
The man stared at the new born children who had formed a semi circle to closely absorb his teachings. "I want you all to close your eyes, feel for the channels in your body." He commanded the children, with a compulsory tone.
All of the children closed their eyes in obedience. Noah also shut his eyes to avoid raising suspicion, the room returned to a state of overwhelming silence.
The first step to unlocking one's ability lay in the control and understanding of chi, most times a passive control would be enough, and one would form their ability over time due to life experiences etched onto the core of their soul body. However in their case they were newly born children with a blank slate while Noah, he had never had interacted with chi before.
"This is the perfect situation for me to confirm, if I am really in a game. "Noah declared internally.
He strained his senses beyond their natural limits, Thanks to codex, he knew where all the major channels resided. The chest, solar plexus, the wrists and the veins in the feet, the jugular vessels and of course the brain.
He sat in silence feeling for ki in these areas. After nearly an hour of silence, he finally felt it, a gently warmth flowing through his wrist. It was a slightly different sensation than that of blood, a pure and formless energy was coursing through his wrist.
"Yes this is codex, But how did I end up here. It most certainly has to do with strangeness of Joshua Preston. I need answers, but I sure won't get them in here." Noah mused
"That's enough for today children." The masked man signalled
The children opened their eyes gazing at Rook. While Rook pulled out a communicator, he whispered a few words into the communicator and stowed it away into his robe. Suddenly the space around him began bending, it wrapped and twisted around his figure blurring it, in an instant he vanished from view. Leaving the children in awe.
"That, is a spatial ability!." Noah almost screamed out.
Creak! The Iron black door opened revealing figures adorned with white garments and white face masks. They marched into the cold room in a practiced motion moved the children awe struck children out. Noah along with the other children were walking along the white hallway, no one spoke a word.
Noah was taken to a relatively large room, The room was furnished with a wooden bed as well as a reading table. By the side of the room a door was erected. The figure that guided him spoke in his characteristic hoarse. He pointed at the door on the left "That room leads to the bathroom."
"That is your bed and that is a place for studying." Food will be here at 3 intervals daily." He spoke gesturing to the bed and reading table respectively.
A soon as he was done speaking, The figure exited and shut the door behind him. Noah stood alone it was dreadfully quiet.
Click...Click
"Of course it's locked." He sighed in frustration
"Which means, the only way to escape is to create a special ability. "Noah stroked his chin while speaking.
Noah sat on the floor assuming a cross-legged stance. His eyes were shut and remained motionless. The structure of the human anatomy came into view, Noah was a genuine addict of the Codex and had done a lot of research on the positions of ki centres. he had even practiced it back in his world. But the concept of chi didn't exist physically in his world.
The Concept was straight forward , he had to connect all six centres in his body chi by mediating, that would grant him access to his soul body. Inside his soul body is where all the real work begins. Noah concentrated allowed his senses to follow the sensation of his chi flowing to his chest.
After nearly an hour, the room was saturated with the smell of sweat. Noah sighed in frustration and headed to the bathroom. He hadn't made any progress as soon as he tried to follow the sensation of the ki living his body, the feeling was eliminated by the rush of blood flowing down stream.
Turning on the shower knob, he washed his body. He closing his eyes and began picturing the flow of chi that moved down his wrist. He attempted to follow the ki upstream to locate the other sites, but it ended in failure each time.
"I need to calm myself." Noah slowly muttered
Drip...Drip
gurgl!
Dripping sounds and the sounds of water draining filled his ears, Taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes and eliminated all distractions plunging himself into a dark void, focusing on nothing. Several minutes flew by the suddenly, he felt something a warm sensation flowing along his wrist, being fundamentally different from blood , a pure and formless energy.
He followed the energy upstream but this time he didn't rely solely on his five senses. He felt a strange sensitivity to this energy, leveraging this connection he located the energy hotspot. pulsating in his chest, it was a lot more potent than that of his wrist.
A wave of accomplishment washed over him as, he had finally completed 1/5 of the problem. Through this endeavour, he had gained a interesting take on ki. ki isn't solely about what on senses or feels, it is also made up of matters that are incorporeal or intangible. Noah mused
"It is a culmination of the physical and spiritual. "He thought to himself. "As expected of me, am a genius after all." He smiled to himself
After exiting the bathroom, He stretched his body in exhaustion and sank into his bed, fatigued from the connecting of his centres.
Thunk...
The lights in his room switched off, leaving pure darkness it's wake. Combined with the eerie silence, Noah felt his spine tinge. He wasn't used to sleeping without a light. But he had to endure,
"Soon, I'll will be free". He whispered, he tossed and turned in the darkness. Several memories of his mother drifted in his mind, slowly his expression softened. " I'll be home soon." he murmured.
Slowly his mind sank into a void drifting into a slumber.