"Oh?" Katherine suddenly looked intrigued. "How much of it do you know?"

"Basic forms…" He replied, prompting Katherine to toss him a wooden sword.

She then said, "Show me."

Piers also walked back a bit, giving Aiden some space, whilst Katherine watched with both her arms folded.

Aiden took a stance, and after exhaling, he stepped forward and swung the blade in a clean arc.

His footwork moved in perfect sync with different sword slashing and thrusting combos that followed suit.

After a few minutes, he stopped, receding his feet back to a straight stance, and exhaling one more time.

All the while they watched, Piers pressed his lips together, trying to stifle the giggles.

But when Katherine muttered, "Those have to be the worst basic forms I've ever laid my eyes upon," Piers burst out laughing, unable to hold it in any longer.

Katherine scoffed, "If you were in Zahka, you wouldn't even make it into being an Initiate with that."

Whilst mages started at the Academy rank in Xathia, intending swordsmen or Martial Artists began at the rank of Initiate.

Aiden scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He definitely did not expect that reaction.

"But what comes as a surprise to me is the amount of Qi your body is emitting. It's on the level of a sword knight," Katherine said with a puzzled expression as she stared at Aiden.

A sword knight was the level equivalent of a senior ranked mage in Xathia.

"That's not possible," Piers said with eyes widened from shock, and then Katherine said, "Take a look."

Piers focused his eyesight well enough and saw the air distorting around Aiden. It looked like a heat haze around him, but only that it was a really huge haze.

"But how…" Piers was in total disbelief. "To have a Qi that high means you've been training your mind and body for years. It makes no sense."

Katherine just looked on without saying anything. She too was trying to make sense of it. His sword forms were too terrible to be referred to as a sword knight, but yet he had the same Qi quality as they did.

Aiden, without offering a word back to Piers, simply shook his head and shrugged. Of course the obvious answer to him would be that the system shaped his body and mind naturally each time he ascended the levels as a Dragon.

"What is this Qi you're talking about?" Aiden asked, rather confused.

"Qi is that current that links your body's strength to your mind's intent. If the mind falters, the flow of your Qi stutters. If the body weakens, the current thins. True mastery lies in balancing both until they act as one," Katherine said.

Then she added, "While mana flows in a select few, Qi is found in everyone, and how much of it you possess is entirely based on the amount of training you put into your body and mind."

Aiden nodded in perfect understanding of what she was saying.

The Captain was the only person in Xathia who had a high amount of Qi and powerful magic.

But in her situation, she was a Zahkan Noble who had learned to master her Qi for several years, before deciding to pursue the mastery of magic in Xathia.

Then Katherine laughed and shook her head, "I'm unsure I can even call you gifted at this point. You're a living enigma."

Aiden had an awkward smile, "I mean to be fair, I used to do some workout, so I guess that's why my body emits that much?" He was going off the whole explanation from the captain about the training of the body.

Piers slammed his palm into his face and shook his head.

The Captain debunked his assumption, "It doesn't work that way. Of course someone who works out will definitely have more Qi than a regular person, but even then it is still not visible outside of the body. The training required to have one's Qi high enough that it flows outward is different and much more arduous."

At that moment, the system made new message screens appear before him.

[New Special Quest Assigned]

[Special Quest: Acquire the basic mastery of Qi]

[Reward: ??]

[Bonus Reward: ??]

[Duration: ??]

"It was to be expected," Aiden thought to himself after seeing the screen. This then prompted him to ask the captain, "Captain, can I ask you to teach me the basic mastery of this Qi?"

Katherine smiled at that request, "Of course, my darling. Now my baby Piers would have a sparring mate." She clapped both arms together in absolute delight.

"Matter of fact, we'll start now. Take your shirt off!"

Screaming that out loud only worsened how awkward it sounded, but Aiden did as asked and pulled his shirt off his body.

Katherine let out a low, drawn out "Woaaahhhh" as she stared at Aiden's body in astonishment. She even walked closer to touch it, causing Piers to turn his face away slightly as he felt that tiny bit of jealousy.

"Hey… captain…" Aiden felt somewhat uncomfortable with the Captain moving her palms through his abs.

"Shuuu," Katherine muttered with her index finger pressed over her lips. "My oh my, now I'm jealous of Laela."

Piers shook his head at this point, and then Katherine pulled back slowly and said, "Piers darling, starting today we are adding workout routines to your training. That understood?"

"Yes Captain," Piers said reluctantly, as he didn't like the idea of a workout routine.

"Alright, now we'll begin," Katherine said with an excited grin on her face.

"Basic mastery starts with two things," she began, raising two fingers up. She looked more serious now as she spoke.

"One is being able to emit Qi, and the other is being able to see Qi flow. Being able to emit, even the faintest amount, is the most important part. Normally it requires special rigorous body training to get to that level, but good thing you somehow can do that. Which leaves us with one other thing, seeing the flow of Qi."

Katherine continued, "Now there's some problem here too. Usually, it's the same training regimen for Qi emission and Qi sight. But since that isn't your situation, you'll have to go through mind training exercises. By my calculations, you should be able to achieve Qi sight within 7 days. It's the easier part."

"Are there any more things I could start with while trying to gain this Qi sight?" Seven days felt too long for Aiden.

Katherine understood he was being impatient here and replied, "No, you can't skip the steps. The next stage of training requires that you have already mastered Qi sight and emission."

"I have an idea, Captain," Aiden said, after which he used the Dragon's Sight Skill. "Alright Captain, emit your Qi."

He was very much certain that Dragon's sight would be able to see it.

The Captain exchanged amusing glances with Piers and then turned towards Aiden. "No. Turn those eyes off."

Katherine didn't fully understand how his dragon's sight skill worked, but she knew for certain they were special magic eyes that gave him an enhanced form of vision.

"If you need them to see Qi then you'll never truly master the basics," Katherine said, causing Aiden to turn them off.

Then she added again, "Moreover, I doubt those magic eyes of yours would have been of any use, because right now both Piers and I are currently emitting Qi energy. If it could see it, it would have already."

Aiden sighed, "How do I begin then?"

Katherine then explained that it began with "stillness."

She asked him to sit and quiet his breathing, then listen to the rhythm of the body until that faint warmth beneath the skin became familiar.

Additionally, she added that after practicing within closed doors, he would try again outside where he would need to be able to still his mind under outdoor distractions.

She assured that over time and with consistency, his senses would have sharpened enough that he'd be able to see Qi in every motion.

Aiden sat down as instructed and was going to begin, but then he realized something within the very words that the captain had said. "If my body emits Qi, my senses definitely have sharpened enough to see it too."

So as instructed, he did still his mind and cleared his thoughts, and after a moment he opened them.

Around Piers, it felt like air distortions and as though he was in the center of a heat haze, but his was faint.

And around the Captain, it was much different. It didn't just appear like distortions in the air. There was this light blue flowing aura around her body.

Katherine noticed that Aiden was staring at them scrutinizingly, and before she could go ahead to ask, Aiden said, "Captain, I think I can see it now."

Both Katherine and Piers were astonished to hear what Aiden just said.

"On your body the flow is different. It looks like it has the blue color, and on Piers, it has no visible color, but I can see the faint pressure."

"This was… too fast. Did you just master that now?" Katherine asked.

"I can't say for sure, but it's from what you said. My body emits Qi already, so I assumed it had already reached a state where it could naturally see Qi. Then, I applied your instructions, and turns out it worked," Aiden stated.

"You really are something," Piers commended with this smile on his face.

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