Ki Horizons - [Litrpg, Adventure, Power Levels]

Prophecy. Prophets. I didn't really know much about them. They just kinda… I'd heard stories they appeared, said some kind of horrible thing was going to happen, and then they usually died under some mysterious circumstances. Sometimes laying down a prophecy that only later arose hundreds of years later. The only thing was…

I didn't think they were real!

Even in a world that apparently had magic, being able to tell the future was… insane. I don't think I would have believed it normally but, I'd been skeptical that magic existed too. And yet some random sales demon had used it on me. My worldview… my knowledge… they were small. I was a frog in a well. Maybe other people knew prophets existed, maybe there were whole online communities where they all shared their future visions, maybe maybe maybe.

I didn't know enough.

Sigh.

The water felt good at least. The motion of the small waves as the sound of families and people playing and swimming filled my ears. But not only that. I could sense them, in this small room. Like tiny, minuscule flickers. Sparks. Sparks in the darkness. What did I know? A whole new sense was thrust upon me, who's to say it's the only one I'm missing? Who's to say what can or can't be done when mind magic is a thing? Who's to say what is possible and what isn't? That simply isn't the kind of world Rabahgahdan supposedly wished into the world. This world… was a world of miracles and mysteries and more.

I shook my head and cleared my mind. So, maybe I am a prophet. Maybe I'll keep having strange visions and strange dreams, or even more, over the years. Scary, horrifying, world and universe shattering visions of maybe futures and maybe things.

So… what did that actually mean for me?

No wonder he told me to relax. This is stressful.

I guess… I had to ignore it. Not the immediate warnings of doom I sometimes rarely had gotten but the visions, even if they started showing more normal things, I had to pretend I didn't. That way lay madness. What if I saw Vincent or Master trying to kill me in my sleep? Vincent was pretty unlikely, he had contained his rage pretty admirably but Master…

I felt my face scrunching up.

Would I act on maybe knowledge? Could I afford not to? Would I try to attack- ha, no. Would I run away and hide? Would I confront him? Would I ignore it? I don't know. It's important in case it ever happens, in case I start seeing things that aren't so far away and above they might as well be beyond myth and mystery, but I don't know.

"What has you looking so constipated?"

I looked over at Vincent, shirtless, swimming on over. Most of his jewelry was off for once. The necklace, rings, and earrings all came off. Though he did keep the small studs above and below his left eyebrow.

"Just… thinking about the future, I guess?"

That was definitely one way to put it.

Vincent nodded though, not understanding where my mind was at.

"It's a big step, learning how to sense Ki. The next steps are training it. Soon, you'll be able to fly and open up a whole new style of combat with blasts and beams."

I felt a bit thunderstruck.

It's not like I didn't know all of that. It's just… the training, the strange man, the oppression from Master's Ki, the future stuff, the Ki Sense itself, it had all taken up the limited space in my brain.

But all of that was only a teaser for what was to come. I had used Ki, purposefully, made it into a ball in my hands. I didn't know how long it would take me to reliably repeat that feat but still… soon I would. I would be able to shoot those devastating beams on purpose, without injury. To fly. To shoot balls and go even further beyond. Learn techniques with Ki that I'm sure Master must have had rattling in his old head that he could teach me.

I stared down at my body, taking it in. Not the physical appearance, though I really needed to start proper working out and training again. No, taking it in on a metaphysical level. How my Ki sense swam through it, how my mind worked and pulled information from combat and fighting, how my body could break and dent steel now, if not outright shatter wood and stone. How I was finally reaching a point where the natural durability of my whole body was honestly closer to rock than just wood or baseline human flesh.

I was becoming a monster. Changing into something more. Growing and ascending. Becoming a weapon but also just… a being beyond. There was a point, a long long long point, where I'd been stuck at Power Level [1]. Nearly my whole life. And already… in but a year and change, I'd changed so much. Become so much more of a person.

I frowned.

No, no perhaps when it came to that, I was still lacking. I still wasn't as much as the same Mutai before Vega. Still lacking compared to him. With likes, interests, hopes and dreams, and more. I was a pale shadow so far, compared to all the wonderful self I once was with my family and village. But I wouldn't remain like that. Already, I was growing in this way too. Growing my mind, my expectations, my senses, hell, even my wisdom. An earlier Mutai would've asked Vincent about future telling. Current Mutai knew that was a risk and a half. Even searching for it online felt scary. If that was the reason Master was going to kill me if I told him about the man, I couldn't afford to ask it. I had to keep that secret all the way to my grave or risk death.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"I've grown."

"We both have." Vincent said, a wry smile on his face. "Does it scare you?"

I stared up at the ceiling as I floated on the water, thinking about that question for a few minutes.

"No. No, not really. Change… I don't know about others, but I've only changed for the worse since that horrible day. It's only in the last year or so that I've done anything but rot away. I need to keep changing, to be able to put Vega into the ground and become a better person. Better at being a person."

Vincent let out a scoff and shook his head.

"Idiot. You see those three years as a waste don't you?"

I floated along, as Vincent lazily swam next to me, quirking an eyebrow.

"Hmm? Aren't they? I mean, all I did was drink and-"

"You did not drink yourself silly for three years."

"Well, no, but before that all I did was-"

"Survive? Try your best to train? Get accepted and kicked out of a Dojo? Worked in customer service, the horror. You even went to a water park once and managed to watch a few movies along the way."

"Yeah, in just about the most fucked up mental state I'd ever been in, even counting the sewers. What's your point Vincent? That those three years weren't a waste of my life? That I didn't just die slowly during them?"

"That you survived during them. And sometimes… that's all we can do."

His face took on a faraway look and I was reminded of just how mentally strong Vincent was. It hadn't even been half a year since he'd lost his whole family, his whole clan. Hell, his birthday and a major holiday had happened not that long ago either. Both must've been, no, were definitely boiling gut punches that hurt like no other. I would know from experience. And all that time was spent working himself to the bone training with me, nearly day in and day out. And yet despite all of that, I'd only see him nearly shatter once or twice. I'm sure there'd been more times in private that it had happened but I hadn't been that strong. I'd shattered more than a few times in front of totally random strangers in those early years.

And now… he was at least a bit closer to where I wish I could be. Some semblance of… growth. Strength. Normalcy. He drank without getting blackout drunk. He worked on metal. He spent quiet moments alone meditating, even when the eight hours were up. He moved through the motions in the arena below the dojo, even if he adamantly refused to ever spar with me.

He was… healthier than I ever dreamed I could be, let alone after that.

"Yeah, maybe you're right big bro."

He splashed me with a massive wave of water, nearly sprawling me onto the walkway.

"Oi! Who said you could get that morose huh?! I thought you were the big bro!"

"What do you think you're doing you anvil?! You nearly washed me away!"

I splashed him back, knocking him around in the waters.

"Huh?! I don't think I heard you right, big bro."

"Who said I was the big brother huh?! You're clearly the healthier one of us!"

He sent another massive wave of water at me.

"You're the senior disciple here!"

"Huh??! You're older! I'm absolutely the little brother!"

Before long, half the pool was being thrown around as we kept arguing over who was the little brother.

…not long after that, we were kicked out for disturbing everyone else.

"We'll call it a tie this time." Vincent said, soaking wet. They'd at least thrown him his jewelry as we were leaving, but not a towel.

"Agreed." I said. Not really sure what exactly we were tying on.

*******

"Have you made your decision yet?" Vincent asked as I walked back to the dojo.

"Yeah." I said, grumpily.

The decision was a simple one. Whether to pay for a hotel away from the dojo. So that way I didn't have to be next to that god damn monster. Sadly… it was good training to get used to being around him. I couldn't exactly avoid him forever.

Inwardly, as we got closer and closer, I was shocked. My Ki Sense currently was… truly terrible. It didn't reach very far, it didn't have very much depth, and I could sense a person better when I was actually looking at them, when the sense itself didn't rely on my eyes at all. It barely even worked properly directly behind me. Yet even then, I had felt a few strong signatures as we walked. I could've sworn I even felt a triple digit at one point, though I hadn't seen them. And yet, as we got closer and closer to the Dojo, I couldn't sense Master at all.

Is this Ki Control? Being able to be practically invisible, even to other Ki Senses? It had to be. The room he pumped Ki into alone would've had police busting down the door to see what was happening otherwise.

And the second I opened the door-

"My eyes!"

Master just sighed in exasperation.

"Ki Sense has nothing to do with eyes. I've met creatures that don't even have bodies who had Ki Sense. Stop being a baby and a coward."

Once I got used to the blazing inferno of hell that was assaulting me, I was inwardly surprised. It was late. Me and Vincent had even stopped for some food along the way. What was Master doing, sitting in the Dojo at this time of the night? He usually was watching Sherlock Sluts today. I heard there was a whole new season with Paddy having come back from the dead.

…Rabahgahdan, Master's stupid show has started to rub off on me.

"Master, why are you here so late?"

"Well, before a certain coward ran off, I was going to explain his training going forward beyond just learning how to better sense Ki." Master said, rubbing a pinky in his ear with a nonchalant expression and idly petting Sparky. That adorable creature was meowing up a storm. "I sensed you coming and now, before you can waste any more of my time, we'll be going over your training schedule starting tomorrow."

Somehow… I had a sense of foreboding.