The Succession

Winding time back a little.

Choco sat upon the bed in the lotus position, hands gathered low in her lap, drawing her breath in slow, measured cycles. The picture she made was one of perfect stillness. Inside her skull, however, a voice had not stopped chattering for even a moment.

"You have to keep circulating your spiritual power without rest as you think. The generating cycle and the overcoming cycle of the Five Elements, the laws of their circulation, seeing through the transformations of all things in the universe…"

"Could you be quiet for one second? I can't think if I can't even hear myself think."

I never should have said I'd try this training. Choco let out a quiet sigh.

After Yeon had logged out, she had taken a long rest — and then found herself staring down a surplus of time with nothing to fill it. She had slept for nearly twelve hours, which amounted to less than six in the real world. Yeon would not be back until night had fallen at least twice more inside Al Fantasia. That was a generous stretch of free time, and she had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Going out to hunt alone was out of the question. Yeon had only just discovered how fun hunting could be; the last thing Choco wanted was for her to log back in, take one look at a level that had climbed without her, and wilt with disappointment. Wandering the fortress was no better. Someone was bound to recognize her and strike up a conversation.

And that was a problem that predated anything Ho-jin had posted on the forums. His writing it up would only mean more people who could put ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a name to her face — that much was obvious — but a fair crowd had already gathered by the time they returned to the fortress after taking down the Kobold King. They were users who had been hunting in Grape Cave, drawn by rumors that a sudden event had broken out. Both Grape Cave and Gezina's Forest used the fortress as their base of operations, so a turnout like that was only to be expected.

Of the people there, precious few could have missed Ho-jin swaggering through the gates with that thorned club in hand, or the three-person party trailing a little way behind him. And by now, enough time had passed that Ho-jin's post would have been up for quite a while.

If she went strolling around just to see how the inside of the fortress had changed over the last few years, the odds of being collared by someone who recognized her were uncomfortably real. Back when she had been rank one, she had wrapped herself head to toe in black armor and cultivated an aura of sheer intimidation — and even then, people had come up to talk to her. Now, looking like an approachable little girl? There would be no end of them.

So going outside was off the table.

Which left only the things she could do inside this room. And that was when she remembered Tara's relentless campaign on the necessity of training — all those lectures about how spiritual power gained through killing was impure, and only the power refined through repeated cultivation was pure, and so on and so forth.

She had nothing better to do anyway, so she had asked Tara to teach her this training, or cultivation, or whatever it was. And that was how she had ended up like this.

Do I seriously have to learn philosophy on top of everything else? It's still just a game.

To Tara, this world was reality, and so the teachings carried absolute weight. It was through that learning that she could wield spiritual power and practice Daoist arts. Choco was different. She had become a part of this world, yes — but at her core she was a user. A player who could operate a status window, unlike any NPC.

The Five Elements Daoism Tara had taught her before was the same. Choco had never fully grasped the underlying concepts, but the skill existed on her status window all the same. If she wanted to use it, she could. That was the difference between them. One had to learn a thing perfectly before she could use it. The other could hear an explanation, try it a few times, and walk away with a skill she could wield without a flaw.

Tara would have hit the ceiling and exploded if she had overheard that particular line of thought. Fortunately, ever since the gap in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their ranks had widened, she had no longer been able to read Choco's mind, so the explosion never came.

Instead, no matter how fed up the words Choco muttered, Tara refused to back down, and went on chattering inside her head.

"You must not hear my voice as a voice. Feel it the way you would a passing wind. During training, no matter what sound reaches you, no matter what stimulus touches you, you ignore it. What you need is the discipline to observe yourself without pause."

I'm telling you I don't need any of that. Choco grumbled inwardly and let the breath out of her lungs.

Still — Tara's training was not entirely useless.

A skill that permanently raised a stat just by using it. Choco was certain that if you turned Al Fantasia upside down and shook it, you would not find another person alive who had a skill like this. No one except her, as she was now.

Skills that raised stats temporarily were a dime a dozen. Take the Berserker class, for instance. Among its skills was one called Rampage: the user lost all control of their body to raw instinct, but their strength and agility surged to monstrous levels. The duration was a mere three minutes, and when it ended, every stat dropped by thirty percent for a full hour. The risk was enormous.

Chan Meditation had none of that. You simply folded yourself into the lotus position, the way a mage sat to meditate and recover mana, and your Spiritual Power went up. Not temporarily. Permanently.

Where else were you going to find a cheat skill like this? Choco bit down on the smile trying to slip through her lips and held her focus as tightly as she could.

Even then, Tara's voice kept unspooling inside her head.

"…If you continue to contemplate the profound principles of the Five Elements like that, you will come to grasp the interdependent law by which all things oppose one another and yet rely upon one another. And beyond that, the harmony created by the energies of Yin and of Yang—"

There she goes again with the impossible-to-follow stuff.

Two opposing forces that gave birth to all things between heaven and earth. The voice had begun to unspool, smooth and unhurried, a discourse on the harmony of Yin and Yang and on their very origin — and the head of the girl sitting there with her eyes closed began to dip.

That ordinarily sharp voice turned quiet and peaceful whenever it settled into a teaching like this. Sit still and listen long enough, and drowsiness came rolling in, soft as fog. And that was after she had already slept more than enough. It felt a little like sitting through a history lecture back in school…

She was turning that thought over in a consciousness that was tipping, tipping, almost gone — when the voice cut off cold, and she lifted her eyelids, slow as syrup.

Tara was standing there. When she had come out, Choco could not have said. Her arms were folded, and her face said her mood had taken a steep turn for the worse.

Ah. A look of pure disaster crossed Choco's face, and Tara spoke.

"You do realize what you did wrong, I trust?"

"Mm— well… the sounds of nature soothed this one's mind, and…"

"I told you to treat my voice like the wind. I did not mean you should actually drift off on it."

"Eep—!"

A folding fan — produced from where, Choco could not have said — tapped her lightly on the head. Tara exhaled a long sigh.

"Well. Fine. The teachings will have settled into your unconscious. Keep at the training long enough and you'll grasp them on your own."

I think I already grasped something.

Choco rubbed the spot she had been struck and looked at the system window.

The description was short, and grandiose. So grandiose she had no idea how she was supposed to actually use the thing. At least the ranks of her old Five Elements Daoism skills had combined, pushing the new one up to Rank B. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠That much was welcome. Having to raise each element separately had been a chore. A single Yin-Yang and Five Elements skill was a far better deal.

"That's enough Chan Meditation. What comes next is the important part."

"There is yet more thou wouldst tell me?"

"We've been given this time. We may as well do what needs doing."

Tara let out a deep, weary sigh. Choco tilted her head and unfolded her legs from the lotus position.

Jackpot.

A stat gain on the order of two whole level-ups. Choco's eyes went wide. She had never imagined it would climb this much. One or two points, she had figured. Who in their right mind would have guessed eleven?

If this was the return, putting in a few hours every day might not be such a bad idea. She could not keep the corner of her mouth from twitching upward.

Of course, there was something she did not know. Once Chan Meditation pulled you under into that state of focus, the flow of time you felt and the time that actually passed became two entirely different things. To Choco it had felt like no more than a few hours. In truth, nearly twelve hours had gone by in the real world — which meant a full twenty-four had passed in Al Fantasia. And even that much of a gain had only been possible because Tara had sat with her and guided the meditation. It would not climb like this again.

"…Would you stop making that idiotic face."

"When did this one ever wear such a look?"

Choco played dumb without so much as a blink. Tara sighed. The look on the girl's face made it obvious she was laboring under a small misunderstanding about the training. Tara chose not to correct her. The one who would lose by figuring it out late was not Tara. It was her.

"So. What is this important matter of thine?"

"You do know that I serve as Lady Gumiho's divine medium, yes?"

"Divine medium… thou meanest that shrine maiden business?"

"That is what humans tend to call it, yes."

And she was bringing this up now because…? Choco looked at her, puzzled. Tara went on.

"Starting now, I am going to pass the role of divine medium on to you."

"All of a sudden?"

"Would you kindly wipe that I-have-no-use-for-this look off your face? I am not handing it over because I want to."

"Ahem."

Was it that obvious? She muttered, ducking the sharp glare Tara had leveled at her.

"Nay, but if that is so, there is hardly any need to force it upon me, is there?"

"I already told you. I am not giving it because I want to give it. Lady Gumiho commanded that I do so. So I am doing so."

Tara sighed again and continued.

"This was decided from the moment I became your familiar. Once the successor had attained a certain rank, I was to pass the role to her. I had thought that day was still a long way off. And then you went and climbed so high I cannot even be compared to you…"

"That can hardly be laid at this one's feet, can it?"

"No. It can't. I really should have just… taken care of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠things back then."

Choco decided not to ask what, exactly, Tara should have done.

"Then how is this 'succession' to be performed?"

"Take this."

"Is this not… simply a fan?"

The same folding fan, no less, that had been used a moment ago to rap her for failing to concentrate. When she said as much, Tara's face pinched with irritation.

"Less chatter. Take it."

"Ah. Very well…"

Privately regretting that she had asked at all, Choco closed her hand around it.

And a world apart unfurled before her eyes.