When I step out of the bathtub, the entire dorm is once again filled with steam. This time, I take a bit of time to examine the switches and buttons on the wall by the door. After some fiddling and a bit of accidental total darkness, I find one that enables some kind of air filtration tiles in the ceiling, sucking away all the steam within seconds. The towels hanging on the rack are still too damp to use, but there are dry ones in a drawer under the sink.
A few minutes later, I’m fully dry, and dressed in a clean set of robes. This time, I opt for a less dour color, going with dark gray instead of black, and I hang my sword from a convenient built-in loop on the belt. The clock shows that it’s around one in the afternoon, meaning I can probably leave right now, but I stay behind for a bit longer.
At the foot of my bed, I work through a few martial arts stances and forms. I go slowly, just enough to get my body into the rhythm without exerting myself enough to start sweating when I just showered. Now that I’m finally not on the verge of death and not needed for anything imminent, I can take a bit of time to enjoy how responsive my body has become since constructing my ki center. Every motion is steady and smooth, with each part of my body working with the others like a well-oiled machine. I switch from form to form seamlessly, sometimes stopping midway through to marvel at my balance. If anyone could see me right now, they’d probably think I was doing some odd cross between tai chi and yoga.
Once I’m satisfied that I have a thorough understanding of my body’s current state, I sit down on the edge of the bed and close my eyes and meditate. After about a minute, I open my eyes and hold out my palm. A moment later, a small lick of flame appears. It’s no bigger than a candle flame, and looks weak enough to be blown out by an errant gust, but I smile anyways. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve gotten to use this. It’s a technique far above my current level, but it was my signature in my previous lives. Well, one of my signatures, at least. It feels good to finally be able to see it again.
I watch the flame flicker and dance along my palm for a few more seconds before closing my hand, causing it to dissipate. That little bit of fire cost me a quarter of my ki reserves, but when I reach the Peak realm–or 2 Star– and my meridians are reforged, it will be no problem to keep it going.
I turn my attention inward, meditating until I can sense my core. While in the shower, I was able to shrink my ki center a little bit, but that’s not what I’m looking at right now. Instead, I’m focusing on a stealth technique that I haven’t had to use in a while. It’s a very simple technique that anyone interested in stealth or espionage would learn at the beginning of their journey, but it’s still effective for hiding the fact that I have a ki center. It won’t stop anyone as powerful as Organa or Ganyu from noticing, but it should stop anyone below the Transcendent realm from being able to tell that I have it, which will hopefully keep attention off me while I explore.
Satisfied with my preparations, I step out into my living room and find that Jinlan’s body has disappeared. So has Trinity. I check the rest of the dorm, making sure she’s not hiding under the bed or in the closet or if she somehow managed to find her way into a drawer or something, but I don’t find anything. I do find a little golden bell in one of the kitchen drawers, but I leave it for now. I’ll have to inspect it closer later.
It looks like Trinity has vanished again. The last few times, she simply reappeared next to me later on, but since I’m going to see someone specifically because of her, I’d like to at least know where she is.
“Trinity?” I call.
There’s a slight ripple in the ki, and I turn my head to see Trinity licking her paw on the ground by the door.
“We’re going to see someone who can help me train you,” I tell her. “No more eating corpses in my living room.”
She just keeps licking her paw. I’m not sure why I’m talking to her when I know she can’t understand, but it feels a bit cathartic. I walk over and scoop her up, an action she accepts without protest. I wait by the door for a moment, making sure that there’s no one else in the hall before stepping outside. However, I have terrible timing, and the second I step out, the door to the lift opens and Jacob steps out.
“Oh, Bella!” he calls as he walks toward me. “Heading out?”
“Yes,” I respond tersely.
“Can I-?”
“No. Bye.”
I turn and walk away from him. This means I end up going down the stairs instead of using the lift, but so be it. I make it all the way to the bottom floor before encountering my next obstacle.
“Oh, Bella, did you just get out of the shower?” asks Kat. “Are you going-?”
“I’m busy,” I say, cutting her off. “Bye.”
Trinity squirms in my arms as we pass by, trying to reach Kat for scritches, but I ignore her. Cats who leave dead bodies on my floor are bad cats, and bad cats don’t get scritches.
Right as I’m nearing the exit, I encounter the third obstacle, and the most difficult one so far. Timmy the homeless man was sitting by the door, and as soon as he saw me, he stood up.
“H-hi,” he says.
“Sorry, I’m busy,” I say. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Oh,” he says, looking crestfallen.
I can’t help but feel a bit guilty about this one, but I turn away and walk out the door. Guilt is temporary. Training a void cat to not eat corpses in my living room is eternal. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I’ll have to make some time to talk to him though. I still haven’t figured out what’s up with his ki. I could also try to buy that ginseng off of him… but I shouldn’t. I doubt he understands its value, and I would just be scamming him. He would be an easy target, but I’m not going to stoop that low.
Outside the dorm, it’s sunny and pleasantly warm with a light breeze ruffling the grass between the pathways. It was dark out when we walked by last night, but now that it’s light out, I can see that the area around our dorm is actually quite nice. The paths are made of surprisingly well-kept gravel with grass all around. There are well-trimmed flower bushes lining the paths interspersed with fruit-bearing trees, many of which I don’t recognize at all.
There are also a couple dozen people not-so-subtly keeping an eye on our dorm. Some are better at disguising their purpose than others, holding conversations with each other under the shade of trees that just happen to be next to our dorm, but most aren’t really hiding their intent.
“Hey, beautiful,” says one man as he approaches me.
He’s tall, and a bit handsome, and he’s wearing what he probably thinks is his winningest smile. He’s dressed in similar robes to me, though his are sky blue, and he has a sword on each hip. Based on his ki, he’s almost a 1st rate martial artist.
“You’re new to the Tower, right?” he asks. “Need someone to show you around?”
“No, thanks,” I say, walking past him.
“Are you sure?” he asks, jogging to catch up. “I know where all the best spots are.”
“No, thanks,” I say, this time a bit more insistently.
“Ah, that’s a shame,” he says. “Well, I’m always available to help out a pretty lady. If you change your mind, just ask for Josheron.”
I nod and keep walking, making a left at the first fork to head east toward where Ganyu said the Griffin hall is.
I will most certainly not be asking for him. Also, what the hell kind of name is Josheron? I know I’ve only heard the names of 3 natives, but at least they sounded relatively normal. That name sounds like one that a 5 year old boy named Josh would come up with for a superhero name.
No one else stops me on my way past the crowd of conspicuous onlookers, but I do pick up a few tails. Not one, but three pairs of “friends” just so happen to end their conversation right as I walk by, causing them to go their separate ways, one of those ways just so happening to be the way I’m going. I ignore them though. Doing anything about them would be much more conspicuous than not.
As I walk down the gravel path, I notice that all of the dorm buildings around have some kind of animal statues on the roofs. Our hall had a flaming bird, the next one over has an eastern-style dragon, the next has a shark with an extra dorsal fin, and the one after that has a tiger. I suppose that’s the theme of this sector? I can’t imagine they have enough animals worth sculpting to top the dorms of all 10 million residents. Especially if they’re so wasteful with space, leaving nearly half of every dorm unoccupied.
Actually, now that I think about it, that doesn’t make sense. There’s no way that the logistics work out. They can’t just give full dorms to every new Batch. If anyone can choose to stay for 4 years, then by the end of those 4 years, there will only be a few people left in the dorm, and they won’t be able to give the dorm to any new Batches until the last of the old ones leave. Maybe they just constructed new dorms for us because we’re from a new planet. Or maybe they start merging dorms once the numbers get cut down by people advancing to higher Floors.
It’s not really all that important, but I might have to ask later. For now, it’s time to get down to business. Griffin Hall isn’t actually that far away, and I can already see the golden griffins on the roof from here. The other dorms all have small crowds outside them too, which makes me think that they also house new arrivals from Earth. As I walked by each of them, a few people from each group broke off, and now I have an absolutely comical number of people following me.
I glance back, knowing it won’t be suspicious due to how obvious they are, and I find that none of them are looking very happy. Many of them are glaring at each other, obviously annoyed that their “stealth” was ruined. None of them give up though. I can see a lot of them eying the cat in my arms. If this is how things are going to be, I’m going to train Trinity to disappear whenever I need to travel anywhere.
Thankfully, they all stop when I turn onto the path leading up to Griffin Hall’s front door. A few of them start muttering to each other, but they’re too far away for me to hear what they’re saying. Probably something about it being strange that I’m visiting another dorm so soon after arriving, but hopefully, the cat in my arms will provide an explanation. If Nadia is known for her knowledge on void beasts, then it shouldn’t be too bad.
This dorm is in a similar style to Phoenix Hall as well as all the others along this street. They were probably all built around the same time. Maybe they were all built recently to accommodate the new arrivals. That would check out with what I theorized earlier about the new Batches getting their own buildings.
I try to open the door, but a small thread of ki reaches out to touch the finger with the invisible ring on it, and the door stays locked. I guess they have an identity check to get into the dorms. That makes sense. I still need to get in though. I grab one of the large brass knockers, but before I can actually use it, the door swings open as two young men walk out. They give me an odd look, but I slip past them before they have time to say anything and keep walking.
The lobby is very similar to ours, and it’s mostly empty with only a few people milling about. I notice that both the young men and the others I see around look distinctly East European. I catch a snippet of conversation, and I think I hear a name that sounds Russian as well.
I walk up to a pair of middle-aged women chatting on a couch, causing them both to look up in confusion.
“Excuse me,” I say. “Do you know where I can find Nadia?”
“She said she’d be in her office on the second floor,” replies one. “Were you not paying attention during the lecture?”
“You’re not from our group, are you?” asks the other, narrowing her eyes.
“I’m not,” I confirm. “My instructor told me to come here and talk to her. For my cat.”
I hold Trinity out to show them, and while they both seem a bit suspicious of me, they nod in understanding.
“Yeah, she’s on the second floor,” says the first woman.
“Thank you,” I say before turning and walking away.
The office is easy enough to find, and it seems like it’s probably in the same place that Ganyu’s office is in our dorm. I pass by a couple more people on my way, all of whom give me and Trinity odd looks, before stopping at the door labeled “Office.” I don’t hear anything from within, so I give two solid knocks.
“Come in,” says a voice from the inside.
I open the door to find that while there was no sound, the instructor was not alone. On the ground, there is a man meditating and absorbing ki while one of the long-eared elves watches on.
“You’re not one of mine,” says the elf when she sees me. Then her eyes flit down to Trinity. “Oh, I see. Very interesting. Well, close the door and have a seat. It looks like we have some things to discuss.”