Kyon, lying on bed, was not sleeping. He faced an important question: what are the «keys» and what to do with them next. It's time to investigate.

Having activated all the Synergy in the body, he sent it to the first key, located in the stroma of the kidney.

The key was a perfect centimeter sphere made of solid unknown material. No liquid, no light, no gas could get inside... Synergy succeeded to do that, but with some effort.

As Kyon found out, the sphere « key « was not limited to its centimeter size. Inside, it seemed, were a long tunnel of unknown length which opened the small gate to another dimension.

Synergy, inch by inch, filled a makes.h.i.+ft «tunnel». His ghostly walls were corroded, covered by raids and some obscure layers, like a mutilated vessel under impact of atherosclerosis. In some places there were piles of some slags of viscous matter ... Sometimes the s.p.a.ce narrowed and expanded, bizarrely curving in the «corners». Synergy flowed around all obstacles like flexible snake stubbornly working its way.

It seemed that in some places the pa.s.sability is inexplicably difficult, as if you go against the current in the bed of a stormy river, in some places invisible pressure prevented the advancement of energy, and sometimes the walls of the tunnel, as if covered with micropores, absorbed Synergy, as a hole in the s.p.a.cecraft sucks everything into oblivion.

Synergy was getting deeper. Elapsed distance somehow could not be accurately estimated – Kyon managed to get inside either 1 inch, or the whole meter.

Eventually, synergy overcame the last obstacle…

«Ahhh!» - Kyon, didn't expect such a turmoil, and issued a quiet moan of pleasure. The feeling as if he had touched his very nature was indescribable. Insight, awareness - as if he had become an enlightened being who got to know the essence of being. Like a man who had been thirsty for days, he finally reached the spring water. This substance which was touched by synergy was beyond the sinful world. The soul was alive inside, it turned out to be self-sufficient aerial world. Moderate winds slowly rotated in a circle, especially around the keys in the spiritual body.

For some time Kyon allowed himself to enjoy the thrill of this unearthly feeling.

{This... is the soul?}

The soul resonated pleasantly with Synergy, as if it were its natural habitat. Being in the soul, synergy felt vibrations that do not exist in the physical world. They came from a s.p.a.ce outside the soul. Wild winds that collided with the sh.e.l.l of the soul, turned into cold gusts, like snow from Everest blowing in your face. The process was somewhat similar to the protection of the planet by the atmosphere from cosmic radiation.

Kyon tried to determine the size and shape of the soul and found that it exactly cointides with the contours of his body up to the copy of the facial features and even clothing. He felt the place where the 10th element was supposed to be, near his head – he stumbled on an invisible solid barrier, its form was like the brain, and could not move forward farher than one inch.

{Is it possible that my achievements in the sphere of Synergy from the past world are sealed in this solid substrate?}

Kyon tried to learn it not from the soul but from the body, repeating the process of penetration, as into he did earlier with the key. However, here he failed to do it also. He had to leave this issue for the time being.

Kyon commenced to check other keys. The situation was similar. All the way was th.o.r.n.y and full of obstacles, corrosion, blockages. The complexity of the pa.s.sage «tunnels» for different keys varied; synergy either rushed to his soul like unstoppable flows, or slowly dropped making its way through all the barriers. All the channels leading to the soul was likely to have been tied in a knot with the mind; it was notso difficult to untie them, but he was worried about one issue:

{Oddly, it is unlikely to have formed by itself. Certainly someone specifically tried vey hard to make them!} - Kyon remembered Martin saying that his keys were reacting strangely.

Due to the fact that synergy could penetrate through any cracks, the guy was able to grope his soul, but most likely, the elemental energy of this world did not have such speed - so he had to work hard, cleaning the channels and unraveling the mysterious knots to give the energy the opportunity to flow freely from soul to body. Now it became clear what the concept of «open keys» meant.

Kyon decided not to ask Byron for information, but to try to do it himself.

He drew up an action plan that implemented applying Synergy.

Kyon started the «cleaning» of the first key. For some time he wondered where to put all these slags, plaques and rubble of unknown matter, but did not find the right solution; he decided to just sc.r.a.pe them off the walls and leave them in the channel. However, the problem suddenly solved by itself: since Synergies had got in touch with alien «garbage», all the excesses simply evaporatd. The surprises did not go out at this: {For some reason, the time in the channels is distorted... it is difficult to understand how it flows. The process, which should take half a day, had been done in one minute, and the waste of Synergy was too small – pure cheating.} Apparently, the whole process would take much less time than he expected.

Having untied the knot of the first key, Kyon felt some surge of energy. After clearing the rubbles, he felt as if he inhaled pure oxygen, getting rid of the raids, he felt as if his body was getting younger. He closed all the cracks, equalized the width of the channel - there was a surge of feeling of ease, peace, stability and balance. And the last, this feeling in the form of pressure and pa.s.sing through the water ... it disappeared after the removal of other defects; he felt as if a veil was removed from his eyes - the world bloomed with new colors, fresh, bright, and others. {And after all, I have opened only the first ca.n.a.l…}

Finally finished with the cleaning, Kyon removed the «overlap», established in advance, as does any conscientious plumber when repairing a tap and…

The unstoppable current seemed to have broKyon through the dam. The purest fire energy burst out of the key and spread throughout his entire body. It seemed to him that the body suddenly had obtained a new life.

After another half a minute, everything returned to its former state, but a slight heat and other sensations remained.

{Opened!} - Kyon was pleased. The whole process took no more than an hour, and 1 of the 9 channels closed before was now functioning.

As the guy later found out, each channel had its own individual and unique structure, which had nothing in common with organics, but rather pure energy with a dense structure.

…

About the elements and purity. (Kyon will get to know tomorrow from the books)

There exist 9 elements in this world. Sometimes different variations can be met, but their essence does not change. The type of the element changes the difficulty level.

1) the Element of might/spiritual power/soul energy/clean energy/clean might. - or just "energy.» The key is located in navel. Complexity 1, the most basic element.

2) the Element of water. The key is located in the bladder. Complexity 2.

3) the Element of wind. The key is located in the lungs. Complexity 2.

4) the Element of earth. The key is located in the stomach. Complexity 3.

5) the Element of heat. The key is located in the right kidney. Complexity 3.

6) the Element of cold. The key is located in the left kidney. Complexity 3.

7) the Element of ether. The key is located in the liver. Complexity 4.

8) Element of light. The key is located in the heart. Complexity 5.

9) the Element of darkness. The key is located in the intestine. Complexity 5.

While mixing the energy of different elements the unique properties can be obtained. For instance, if you combine darkness and light, you get a spatial element. The combination of water and cold will make the formation of ice, and the symbiosis of fire and air will give incredible destructive power. It is possible to mix any items in any order and combination, it all depends on the talent and skills. The higher the total complexity of the mixed elements, the more difficult to control it, as it requires a lot of experience and skill – understanding of the elements.

For example, spatial specialists, connecting together light and darkness, are very much appreciated, as these elements are extremely difficult to be mastered. Among them is the late Martin and Flitz, who left the mine.

The channel is a tube that runs between the physical and spiritual worlds. Between the worlds. It is a conductor of energy and on the way of soul outside it transforms it in the element, to which belongs the channel.

…

The purity of each element is individual: someone has more polluted channels, someone has less. Of course, to «clean up» the keys is possible, but incredibly difficult – even the most wealthy inhabitants of this world in the best case, increased the purity of the element by one-tenth. People like Kyon and Byron, who were born with terribly polluted ca.n.a.ls, should not dream of an easy opening of a key. There is also an abstract rule that the more complex the element, the more contaminated it will be when it is opened. For instance, the element of energy consistently has the highest level of purity, and the elements of darkness and light, respectively, the lowest.

Purity many depends on heredity and the techniques which install "communication with spirit" – that is, opening of all 9 keys. This process usually takes up to 10 years. Apparently, not everyone possesses this «technique», otherwise almost the entire population would have been able sooner or later to reveal the keys. The remaining units - people like Byron, would only be sad to sigh and get used to being a mediocre.

For example, in the mine three-quarters of people do not have public keys, and those who have are in the 7th sector.

For humans, it is considered to be an incredible talent to have the purity of light or darkness at 35%, ether at 45%, cold or heat at 60%, earth, wind or water at 75%, and energy at 90%.

A person with an innate talent, whose element of heat is completely purified, is called the Lord of fire, an outrageously rare phenomenon. The Lord of might is called the one who was able to open the whole key to physical strength.

Unfortunately, Kyon didn't know about this, only tomorrow, during the «market day», he would be able to buy some helpful books. In the meantime, he did not know that in just one night he became the master of all the elements, as other mortals did not dare to dream.

…

When Kyon activated his first key, he felt the heat; the second key radiated cold. The third key opened with a light breeze that ruffled his hair. The fourthone seemed to unite soul and body in a single ent.i.ty. It was easy to guess which key and organ was responsible for a certain element. The elements of darkness and light had proved to be more unusual, it was possible to play around with the lighting. Also, the key of light seemed to radiated life, from the contrary element breathed death.

At the same time, on the highest mountain sat a woman s.h.i.+ning with an unearthly light. Although her face was beautiful, her whole appearance gave off a feeling of boredom and satiety with this place, these people, this life.

Suddenly, a sparkle flashed in her soul. His eyelids rapidly opened, showing the world s.h.i.+ning like the morning dawn: {Hmm? Is it real that for many years, there came the first contender for human ancestry?}

The spark flashed once again, now even brighter than before. Something inside the soul seemed to let Kyon know that there was a second person in the world worthy of its bloodline.

His eyes darted down through the clouds and trees, {Really…}

Kyon opened all the keys indiscriminately without even thinking about the sequence. With each new cleaning of the channels he needed less time for the activation of the soul.

After completing the purification, Kyon felt a surge of strength and the simplest key, the physical one, immediately began to act. However, this pleasant moments were not over. Kyon felt as if his synergy was also changing. {Yes! I knew it!}

His 10-th element of the mind has risen since the beginning of the stage Student (1) to the middle stage. That time his opportunities for appliance of Synergy had increased many times! At least his power would be sufficient to release it from the body through physical contact.

The young man initially a.s.sumed that, with the development of the energy of this world his native and familiar synergy would also grow.

Being distracted by his almost childlike enthusiasm, Kyon did not notice that he had long been someone closely watching. A figure wore a black robe was hiding in a dark corner and waited patiently for the guy to complete the process.

When Kyon's joy began to wane, he suddenly felt as if someone was trying to penetrate his brain, but at the same time, a blue lightning bolt shot from his head. Turning to the side, Kyon did not find anything.

A man in black wanted to scan the thoughts of the guy, but he never expected that his mind had been guarded by synergy. Interesting, very interesting.

It also seemed strange that the lightning did not make any sound – no characteristic crackle, no explosion in contact with the floor, as if it was reasonable and used all its energy solely to hit some target.

{What might it be? Or am I just fancy it?}