As the other beings hesitated, the green dragon was the first to dive headfirst into the abyss. It accelerated in the cold darkness at extremely fast speeds and Mwana’s vision was pulled alongside it. The darkness was overwhelming but somewhere in the far distance was a green light, a glowing rock or maybe a gem. The dragon rushed to swallow the glowing object but on the way it collided with something else causing a booming sound in the endless darkness.

From the illumination of the green object, Mwana could see what had collided with the green dragon; it was a Black Rock Dragon.

Instead of ordinary scales, the scales of the black rock dragon species were made of rocks. Due to the dragon’s massive size, these scales looked like boulders. The green dragon did not pause for even a moment from this collision. Multiple rocks fell off the black rock dragon while the green dragon was mostly unscathed. It did not hesitate anymore and rushed to swallow the glowing object which plunged the abyss into deep darkness once more. However, before the object was swallowed, Mwana managed to see some vague lines on it. It seemed as if a technique was inscribed on it which Mwana could only catch a glimpse of.

“Its name…it looked so powerful but the greedy dragon swallowed it!”

The name of the technique Mwana saw was [Dragon Soul Restoration].

“What a greedy dragon.” Thinking about it, Mwana could not help but exclaim.

The abyss started shaking as if its walls were about to cave in after the green object was taken away. The next moment, everything collapsed causing Mwana to wake up with a start. This was one of the most immersive dreams he had experienced. However, before he could think about it further, his forehead ached in deep pain.

“Aaargh, it hurts! It’s like something wants to pop up out of my forehead!”

A moment later, he felt as if something literally dug out of his forehead before the pain subsided. However, when he removed his hands from his forehead, he could suddenly see everything around the room as if he had a third eye. However, when he looked in the mirror there was nothing strange on his forehead.

“How freaky! But it seems to be a less exaggerated version of the extended vision in the dream allowing me to see a distance away. What is it? It is clearly not physical since I did not grow a literal third eye so maybe a Soul related innate ability or a psychic ability?”

Further, when Mwana examined himself he realized that his soul power had broken the barrier of the next rank which made him extremely joyful.

“I am a level 4 Spirit Sense Novice now! Even the bloated feeling in my soul has disappeared.”

He quickly relaxed and sat down to meditate on the [Spiritual Section] again. Now he could view the progress in his own consciousness as he had successfully awakened his soul power. His mind also felt refreshed and there was a vague feeling as if he had a second mind.  He could tell that even his psychic power had increased at a sharp rate. Now that he could come into contact with his consciousness or the interior of his mind, he did not hesitate to look around. Inside his mind, he noticed that his spirit and mental energy took the shape of a green ancient mirror with dragon carvings on it.

Instinctually, he knew the several names of this mirror: Dragon in the Mirror, the Dragon’s Third Eye, Dragon Mirror Eye, and the Third Eye Mirror. He still did not know its exact abilities. However, he could guess that one of them was the ability to see new angles that he could not see before from 3rd eye view. Indeed from what he had seen of the Green Dragon so far, it had 3 eyes. This ability was related to both the soul and mind.

“It seems my psychic power has increased too. It has more than doubled and there is a vague feeling of 2 minds! Splitting Thought?”

Just like people could train their bodies and souls, they could also train their minds. The first 2 steps of Mind Training usually involved Psychic Accumulation and Splitting Thought. During the accumulation process, one would multiply their mental power through psychic meditation techniques and compress that power. The power could be compressed twice, thrice, or even dozens of times before being accumulated again and again so as to increase the density of psychic power. This density of mental energy would determine a psychic’s strength at the later stages.

In the second step of Splitting Thought, one would split their consciousness creating parallel minds. An ordinary person would not survive this but someone with dense enough psychic energy would have a consciousness dozens or even hundreds of times stronger than an ordinary person.

With the 3rd eye mirror, Mwana felt as if he had achieved a sort of pseudo split thought. He had only done a few psychic energy compressions yet he already touched on the next level. It seemed as if the mirror held a portion of his consciousness imitating the state of parallel consciousnesses. This would improve his telekinetic range and also increase his spatial awareness. Sure enough, when he finished his meditation and tried out the [Telekinesis Spell], he had improved by a large margin. The fact that he could see in a 360 degree angle further enhanced his control.

The next day, Mwana woke up early to train his movement technique and fist style. His movement had already broken past the 20th step in [100 Steps in an Instant] thus doubling his speed. As for [1000 leaves in ones palm], he had long broken past the 100 leaves mark.

Mwana did not forget to also practice the [Magic Amplification] technique as well as the [Green dragon mantra]. Magic was a power deeply connected to the soul and mind and now that both had improved, it became much easier for Mwana to advance in his magic training.

On the second day, Mwana decided to focus on consolidating his soul power as he had crossed 2 levels in a day. It was important to maintain balance so that he did not face too many side effects from his rapid progress. With his body, mind, and soul all improving, his understanding of magic was also boosted further. Naturally he took the opportunity to practice the [Linear Wind Spell] too.

After another day of hard work, the figures on his Moon Bracelet left him a bit amazed:

Martial Rank: Body Forging – Skin Hardening (Level 3)

Energy Capacity: 29

Magic Rank: Magic Pupil

Magic Capacity: 85 (Level 2)

Soul Power: Awakened – Spirit Energy Shrouding (Level 4)

Psychic Power: Awakened – Pseudo-split thought (Level 2)

His magic units had risen all the way to 85 units from the previous 76 units while his natural energy got even closer to the fourth level. At this rate, he was only a few days away from achieving bone forging. Looking at his spiritual and psychic powers, they were no longer semi-awakened and were now fully awakened.

On the evening of the same day, Mwana visited the village temple. His purpose was to use the Elemental Testing Stone there to test his elemental affinity once again. He could vaguely feel that the Green Dragon had influenced him more and more as he continued experiencing visions of it.

Sure enough on testing his affinity, the results were: Lightning, Fire, Water (Blood), Wood (Faint). He already had the first 3 due to his natural lightning affinity as well as the affinities from the Sun Dragon and Blood Dragon whose powers resided in his bloodline. However, the faint Wood affinity was new!

“It must have come from the Green Dragon. Logically, I should not have this bloodline given neither my parents have it. It could be a mutation but the dreams and visions seem too real. Usually Mutated Bloodlines also don’t have any inherited techniques like the [Green Dragon Mantra].”

Mwana could not say that the entire situation surrounding the Green Dragon did not leave him a bit uncomfortable. It seemed to have even more effect on him than his actual inherited bloodlines.

On the last day before the battle with Maji 1, Mwana mainly used the True Spirit Canon to smoothen out his new abilities and enter a state of calmness.

He even felt his wood element strengthen as some of his long stagnant techniques such as the [Withered Wood Dance] took a step further.

After consolidating all his current strengths, Mwana turned to look at his shoulder where a new addition decorated what was once bare skin. It was a tattoo of a sword and a pen crossed together. This was his first Tribal tattoo that he could only receive after undergoing the awakening ceremony. Usually the first tribal tattoo was decided by one’s Mentor. In Mwana’s case this was Jua Urembo. As an artist, Urembo thought that the pen made sense and as Mwana also fancied the sword, she suggested a tattoo involving the two objects. This tattoo naturally boosted swordsmanship and penmanship.

The complexity of the Jua clan tattoos was usually based on one’s blacksmith rank. There were 2 major categories: General Unranked Tattoos and Ranked tattoos. Mwana and the other children could only receive an unranked tattoo until they obtained a blacksmith rank. If one did not have any smithing abilities in this village, there were many rules such as the scenario mentioned that would leave you feeling as if you were discriminated against.

“Tomorrow cannot come soon enough.” Mwana was ready for battle!

Note: For a refresher on Psychic, Spiritual, Body, and Magic levels, see Chapter 0.