Callan Stone and the Akashic Records

(Word Count: 3,927)

There were two things that I noticed while trying to get a handle on sandbending. The first is that sandbending seemed to follow a lot of the same philosophies as airbending. If I tried to plant myself and force the issue as I did bending earth/stone, the sand didn't move as I wanted it to. I needed to think more "flowy," if that made sense, for it to move like I wanted it to. Once I had that thought, it was easy. It also gave me a new skill out of it!

[Sandbending LVL 1/100]

You can bend sand to your will. A sub-bending style of the earthbenders.

Reduces Chi cost of sandbending by 0.1%/LVL

Increases the control over sand by 0.1%/LVL

Increases the amount of sand you can move by 1%/LVL

The second thing that I noticed is that it stacked with my Earthbending skill, which is why the bonuses of the skill were so low in comparison. If I pretend that both my Earthbending and Sandbending skills were at 100%, then the total reduced cost in chi for sandbending would be 60%, the increased control over sand becomes 100%, and the total amount of sand I can bend will be 600%, or 6 times what I would be able to handle normally.

I can only imagine how broken these will become when I evolve my skills.

Sandbending is my first sub-bending style so far. I had tried to get metalbending and lavabending already, but I didn't have much luck yet. I'm thinking that my mentality was wrong in some way, similar to how I needed a more of an airbender's mentality for sandbending. That, or I wasn't quite good enough at seismic sense to sense the impurities in the metal to bend it.

Either way, it was just a matter of practice. I'm sure I'll get it sooner or later.

Sailing through the desert, I had the idea that I needed to avoid the frequent paths that the sandbenders were likely to take. Otherwise, the location of the library would already be known among them. Well, it was likely they did know it already. I wasn't convinced that these sandbender tribes didn't know this desert like the back of their hands.

As for why they didn't just lead the professor to the library? Money. They were probably milking the professor dry of all the money he had, letting him chart the course through the desert. Still, I'm also willing to bet that they also avoided the library if they could. Not many men were willing to enter the domain of a spirit, even if it was a library full of knowledge. So even if they did know about it, it was still out of the way.

All of this was purely hypothetical, even if it made sense.

It took me two days of sand sailing to finally spot it. Jutting straight up out of the sand was a massive tower, with a pointed bulb at the top. Man, if this was merely the very tip of the tower, I can't even guess just how large the main building was.

Eyeing the top of the tower, I could see a couple of open windows. I did have some rope, but I wanted to save that for the drop down, so I sandbent a ton of sand to wrap it around, into some stairs with some supporting pillars. This was the entrance to a spirit's domain, so I spent some time to make it elaborate, putting in nice arches and handrails, keeping to the original Arabian style of the main building. Then I condensed it all into sandstone.

I grinned to myself. Man, Earthbending's just so awesome.

I hurried up the stairs, and peeked down into the open windows. Just like in the show, the tower was hollow and there was a huge drop down into the main building. It was about 100 feet down to the highest bridge I could spot, the whole place was dark and shadowy, only a few light sources that I couldn't see at the moment. It was eerie.

Well, nothing like the present!

I hooked one end up the rope to the nearest post and slowly eased myself down into the library.

When I landed on the bridge, I couldn't help but marvel at my surroundings. An absolutely massive library, with rows and rows of books. If I hadn't been to the Akashic Library, I would have said that this was a bookworm's dream.

Wan Shi Tong should be here any minute now, I just stayed on the bridge waiting. I wanted to stay for a long time, so I'd need the spirit's permission. I didn't think I could get away with sneaking around his place for months.

Only a couple of moments later, I heard heavy whooshes as the large wings of the spirit beat the air. From below, the huge bird spirit shot passed the bridge I was on, swooped around in a graceful arc, and landed heavily right in front of me.

The spirit was a huge owl, with deep black feathers, and a white face. As it stood there in front of me, its wings were too large and seemed to pool around it on the floor as if it were a large cloak.

It bent down closer, examining me with pitch black eyes. In the presence of the great spirit, I felt the same unknowable feeling that I had when faced with the Moon Spirit and the Lion Turtle. These creatures were ancient.

"Interesting. Very interesting. Your Chi has a foreign feel to it, and yet you carry the blessings of Earth and Moon." Wan Shi Tong straightened back up. "I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things. Why are you here, outsider? I have long since banned humans from my library," Wan Shi Tong spoke in a deep and rich voice.

"It is an honor to meet you, Wan Shi Tong. My name is Callan Stone," I bowed. "I've come for two reasons. First is to inform you that General Zhao -" but I was interrupted.

Wan Shi Tong let out a blood curdling shriek, which echoed across the entire library. Its hackles were raised, its feathers puffing up to make it appear even larger. It beat its wings, causing gusts of wind to whip around me. Its neck began extending out like a serpent, and Wan Shi Tong's face came too close for comfort.

"Do not speak that name here! That human burned an entire section of my library!" The spirit shrieked in anger. "Are you one of his allies? Have you come back to destroy more of my library?"

"No! Not at all! In fact, I was there when he attacked the Moon Spirit! I'm here to tell you that the Moon Spirit has taken him to the Spirit World!"

The spirit paused, then returned to normal. I let out a sigh of relief. "I see. That is good news indeed. What is your other reason?" it asked.

"I wish to stay here for a while, around a month or two, to study."

"hmmm… I did ban humans from staying here, but for an interesting outsider, I wouldn't be against it. What knowledge do you have to offer in exchange?"

"Like you've realized, I'm not from this world. I come from another world, one much more advanced, scientifically speaking, than this one. When I'm not reading on my own, I would be happy to tell you about my own world and answer any questions you may have to the best of my abilities," I suggested.

The spirit seemed pleased. "That is acceptable. You may stay here, and enjoy the hospitality of my library. If you need anything, my knowledge seekers will help you. They will lead you to your guest quarters, and will deliver you food and water as you need it. Though a warning," the spirit bent down low towards me again, right in my face. "I will not tolerate the knowledge gained from my library being used for your human warfare."

With that, Wan Shi Tong dropped off the side of the bridge and flew out of sight.

I shook myself to free myself of the weight of that encounter. A fox, one of the knowledge seekers, came trotting up to me and beckoned with a paw for me to follow him. These knowledge seekers may look like cute foxes, but they were spirits as well.

The fox led me all the way down to nearly the ground floor of the library. I must have been several hundred feet below ground. Strangely, the idea didn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, it was even comforting. I was led to a small room that was furnished only with a single bed and a small desk. It wasn't much, but it was enough. I didn't intend to stay in this room for very long anyway.

"Thank you," I nodded to the fox and placed my pack down next to the bed, putting both my swords against the desk, and immediately stepped back out. "Knowledge Seeker, can you lead me to the section on earthbending?"

The fox led me back up several floors. On the way, we did pass the entrance to the section on the Fire Nation. With a peek inside, I saw that all of the shelves had been burnt to charcoal. I could see several knowledge seekers hauling bits of large charcoal, and slowly sweeping away the ash.

I could probably offer some aid in the clean up if I ran out of ideas on what to tell Wan Shi Tong about my world.

We arrived at the Earth Kingdom's section. Rows and Rows of books and scrolls lay before me. I turned to the fox. "Where are the scrolls on earthbending forms?"

And so began my stay at the library. Over the course of the next few days, I spent my time pouring over the various scrolls of earthbending. I was able to find many scrolls on traditional earthbending forms, and even some scrolls of old and outdated forms. I found many scrolls on sandbending, which seemed to be the most common sub-bending style. I did manage to find only two scrolls that mentioned Lavabending. It wasn't a scroll of only the forms, teaching the reader how to do it, but rather it was a diary of an ancient earthbending master that talked about his accomplishment. There was nothing about metalbending.

I brought many of the scrolls to my room, and practiced the forms there. I had knocked out the wall between my room and the one adjacent to mine, making a larger open space that I could use. I planned to fix it before I left anyway.

[Hung Gar LVL 1/100]

A martial arts style that forms the basis for earthbending moves. Focuses on strong stances and being rooted to the ground.

Increases balance by 1%/LVL

Decreases knockback by 0.5%/LVL

Increases effect of Earthbending by 0.2%/LVL

It was funny that this was the last of the four main styles that I learned, considering that I was an earthbender. The only martial arts style that I had left to learn was Toph's unique martial art, which set her apart from the other earthbenders. I think it was called Chow Gar.

I didn't just pour over the martial arts forms, but philosophical debates over the nature of earthbending and what the earth represented spiritually, as well as hypothetical moves that ancient earthbenders theorized. One of the theories was metal, I finally found a scroll that talked about it, but the guy never got it to work. He was talking about how he needed a deeper connection with the Earth and proceeded to take a lot of mud baths and never took any baths.

Not an example I wanted to follow, though he did bring up a good point. Connections. Through my Chi Sense and Cosmic Connection, I could see people's connections to each other and, to a lesser extent, to objects. I could also see my connection to the earth, which had gotten a lot stronger with earthbending. One thing to note was that when I used earthbending, the Chi didn't travel the distance between me and the rock I was making float. It was just instantly infused into the rock. It wasn't something that I had to think about, I just reached out with the intent to earthbend the rock and do it. I've never consciously pushed Chi down any connection, so I don't know if that was how my Chi ended up from my body infused into the rock.

The man's theory was that one needed a deep connection to the earth in order to bend metal, though I doubted it.

If one needed such a deep connection to the earth, then there wouldn't have been so many metalbenders in Legend of Korra. I think it's just enough sensitivity in Seismic Sense to detect the impurities of earth in the metal.

Still, this explained why I had to use earth as a medium to use Chi Healing on others. I couldn't push my Chi through the connection to another person, I believed that would be considered Energybending, so I used the minerals that the person absorbed through their skin to get my chi in their body.

In order to test this theory of connections, I tried pushing some of my Chi down the connection I had with my sword. Because of how I had made it, I had a deep connection with it already. It only continued to deepen as time went by, especially when I took it through the Siege of the North and my battle on the Fire Nation ship.

It didn't work. I think it's because I was targeting the wrong thing. The connection I was using was the connection to the sword as a whole, which included the metal. I frowned, and picked up my sword. I closed my eyes and tapped the blade, feeling for the impurities. I couldn't sense them. Was my skill too low?

I tried using Chi Sense instead, trying to dissect the connection I felt to the sword, and feel any connection to the earth coming from the sword. It was feint. I reached out to those connections, pushing my Chi down those instead.

It worked! My sword now floated up in the air in front of me, blade up as if I was holding it. I went through a couple of simple swings, mimicking the action without a sword in my hand, and the flying sword copied my actions several feet away. I was bending metal!

[Metalbending LVL 1/100]

You can bend the impurities within metal. A sub-bending style of the earthbenders.

Reduces Chi cost of metalbending by 0.1%/LVL

Increases the control over the impurities in metal by 0.1%/LVL

Increases the amount of metal you can move by 1%/LVL

Toph unlocked her Metalbending through her sensitivity in Seismic Sense, I unlocked it through my Chi Sense.

Though that wasn't all, doing what I just did gave me several levels in Chi Manipulation, Chi Sense, and most surprising was a level in Cosmic Connection. This was only the second level I had gained naturally in that skill.

In the evenings, one of the foxes would lead me to Wan Shi Tong, and we talked about various things from my home world, from basic elementary school things, to the big bang, to motor vehicles, electricity, and chemistry. The big owl really combed my brain for everything that I knew.

After a week, I did have to leave to return the sand sailor that I had rented, but with my new sand bending, I was able to swiftly make my way back through the desert to the tower. The whole ordeal only took me the morning, and I was back by the early afternoon.

When I returned, I changed my focus towards Chi, Chi blocking, Energybending, and spirits. I wanted to get as many Chi skills as I could, and see if I could unlock some sort of spirit energy manipulation. Avatar Korra's power scaling went crazy when spirit energy was introduced, although I didn't have much hope in actually being able to shoot spirit beams just yet.

Reading about Chi, it talked about how it was the life energy which every living thing had. There were diagrams of the energy pathways throughout the body, coming out from the spiritual center which was named the "sea of chi," and the seven chakras where energy would pool. There were charts mapping out all of the meridians of the body along these pathways, which can be used for acupuncture and Chi Blocking.

I memorized all of these charts.

Chi Blocking was the practice of striking specific points along the energy pathways to block the flow. Depending on the combination of meridians that were hit, one could inflict a different effect. Because I was the only human here, I had to practice Chi Blocking on myself. On the first try, I succeeded.

[Chi Blocking LVL 1/100]

The art of striking meridians to restrict the flow of Chi in the target's body.

Increases the duration of the inflicted effect by 2%/LVL.

I continued to read up on spirits and energybending, as Wan Shi Tong is a spirit itself, there were plenty of scrolls talking about the nature of the spirit realm and the key locations in it. There were even sources talking about some of the more powerful spirits that still interacted with other beings. Spirits like Raava, Vaatu, The Face Mother, Koh the Face Stealer, Twi and La, and others. While this was rather interesting, I had no intention of going to the spirit realm.

As for Energybending, I could only find brief mentions about spirits warping humans into deformed figures, and how the Lion Turtles gave the humans bending. I didn't find anything on how to actually do it. Going off of the previous theory of connections, one might be able to do it by pushing their Chi through their connection to another person, but somehow that didn't feel like that was it. These spiritual connections weren't actually necessary to use bending. When I unlocked metalbending for myself, that was the first time I had used it.

I couldn't find anything on how to manipulate spirit energy, only different abilities that some spirits had. So I changed directions. I went to see what they had in the Air Nomad's section. The only thing I could think of about sensing one's spirit was in Legend of Korra, when Jinora was able to send her spirit out with a technique called Spirit Projection. In the show it was classified as an advanced airbending technique, but I didn't know if that was solely an airbending thing, or if that was something anyone could do if they were "spiritual" enough. It seemed like it should have more to do with one's spirit than their Chi. 

Over the course of the next few days, I've found a lot of different methods of meditations. I did find the Airbending master that Zaheer quoted a lot, about letting go of all earthly attachments and be free. The advice he gave in order to unlock flying. But that was useless to me. I've already unlocked all my chakras, and I still couldn't fly. I needed to be an Airbender for that. Their air-natured Chi allowed them to become as light as the air to fly.

I also found the Spirit Projection technique. However, no matter how long I meditate or try to disassociate from my body, I haven't had much luck yet.

Through my time in the library, I've lost track of how long I've spent studying theories and practicing what skills I was able to unlock recently: Sandbending, Hung Gar, Metalbending, and Chi Blocking. Though I did manage to go to the observatory and get the date of both the eclipse and the comet. My best guess was that around a month and a half to two months had passed.

STATUS SCREEN

NAME: Callan Stone

TIER: 1

GLOBAL LEVEL: 14 30,718/35,347 Exp

CLASS: Swordsman 1 => 4 837/1,054 Exp

CLASS HISTORY: Street Rat 10/10, Brawler 10/10, Monk 10/10

STATS:

Str: 31 => 34

End: 56 => 59

Dex: 27 => 30

Int: 15

Wis: 51

Cha: 15

Free Stats: 

SKILLS:

Skill Points: 0

[Deception LVL 100/100]

[Forestry LVL 100/100]

[Axe Handling LVL 100/100]

[Wood Chopping LVL 100/100]

[Persuasion LVL 100/100]

[Hammer Handling LVL 100/100]

[Blacksmithing LVL 100/100]

[Sword Handling LVL 100/100]

[Knife Handling LVL 60/100]

[Sewing LVL 42/100]

[Cooking LVL 100/100]

[Leatherworking LVL 23/100]

[Running LVL 100/100]

[Sprinting LVL 100/100]

[Jumping LVL 100/100]

[Leap LVL 55  => 60/100]

[Acrobatics LVL 100/100]

[Sneak LVL 100/100]

[Muted Steps LVL 100/100]

[Hide LVL 62 =>  70/100]

[Meditation LVL 100/100]

[Archery LVL 51/100]

[Carpentry LVL 100/100]

[Sailing LVL 85  => 90/100]

[Baguazhang LVL 100/100]

[Chi Manipulation LVL 100/100]

[Chi Sensing LVL 84  => 100/100]

[Low Cosmic Connection LVL 28 => 29/100]

[Horse Riding LVL 52/100]

[Fishing LVL 100/100]

[Wood Carving LVL 100/100]

[Swimming LVL 73/100]

[Drawing LVL 100/100]

[Haggling LVL 40 => 42/100]

[Chi Enhancement LVL 100/100]

[Parry LVL 100/100]

[Dodge LVL 100/100]

[Counter LVL 100/100]

[First Aid LVL 100/100]

[Intimidation LVL 40/100]

[Earthbending LVL 85 => 100/100]

[Seismic Sense LVL 80 => 100/100]

[Earth Softened Steps LVL 45 => 100/100]

[Chi Enhanced Senses LVL 100/100]

[Northern Shaolin LVL 100/100]

[Language(Hanzi) LVL 60 => 100/100]

[Calligraphy LVL 40 => 100/100]

[Situational Awareness LVL 100/100]

[Painting LVL 32/100]

[Sunder LVL 56/100]

[Pickpocket LVL 1/100]

[Discombobulate LVL 9/100]

[Tai Chi LVL 100/100]

[Singular Attention LVL 100/100]

[Divided Attention LVL 100/100]

[Teaching LVL 100/100]

[Chi Healing LVL 50/100]

[Pain Tolerance LVL 56/100]

[Precise Striking LVL 1 => 26/100]

[Sandbending LVL 1 => 12/100]

[Hung Gar LVL 1 => 40/100]

[Metalbending LVL 1 => 10/100]

[Chi Blocking LVL 1 => 22/100]

WP: 3,200 => 3,900

I was more than a little disappointed in how slow the sub-bending skills were leveling. It's been more than a month and they've gained so few levels. Instead, it seemed like my practice in these sub-bending styles gave more exp towards the Earthbending instead, because I was finally able to cap it. On the plus side, with Seismic Sense now at 100, I could now use that to sense impurities in metal, so I didn't have to use Chi Sense.

I was talking to Wan Shi Tong about the theory of gravity and the formation of black holes when he suddenly perked up. "It seems like we have some more visitors," it said, and flew off.

It only took me a brief moment to remember that the Gaang were supposed to come here. Isn't this the moment when Appa got taken?

I took off after the spirit, using Chi Enhancement to boost my speed. When I got to the main chamber, I could see the group of kids easing themselves down the rope just as I had. I could hear them ooing and aweing. There among them, was professor Zei, who seemed to be enraptured by everything.