“Ahhhh! This is goddamn annoying!” slamming his hands on the desk Apis shouted out loud.
“What is it now?”
Thumping his head on the table and ruffling his hair Apis mumbled quietly “my dad told me that I had to get my [mana controlling] skill to 5 stars by the time I’m 10 years old and I’ve been doing mana shaping exercises nonstop these days, but I don’t see any improvement, I don’t feel any at all.”
‘Oh yeah, I’ve seen him with a fireball hovering around him these days, so he’s been doing mana shaping exercises. But 5 stars in mana controlling skill by the time he is 10 years old? Is that supposed to be good? I don’t know what’s the average should be for these kinds of skills.’ Markus mused to himself.
“What really? Good luck then mate.” Philip said while laughing from the side. “You have to be a genius to reach 5 stars by the time you’re 10 years old.”
‘I guess then I must be a super genius, I already have 7 stars in my mana controlling skill and I’m only five years old.’ Markus was a little smug about it ‘and by their reactions, it doesn’t seem to be a common thing to have 5 stars when you’re ten years old also.’
“Is it that much hard to reach 5 stars proficiency in [mana controlling] skill?” Markus voiced his doubts.
“I guess so, I mean if you’re just training the mana controlling skill then it is possible, but being a mage isn’t just about mana controlling, there are lots of other things to learn and practise, so while learning and practising other stuff it’s not easy to reach a higher level of proficiency in a single skill.” Greta answered him.
“Is that so, but mana controlling skill is one of the most important skills for a mage to have, right? If so it wouldn’t be detrimental even if one trained his mana controlling more than other skills right?” asked Markus again.
“True, it is one the most important skills a mage should train. But it’s not the most important, the most important thing for a mage is mental energy and it is very hard to train mental energy. So mages spend most of their time trying to increase their mental energy.” Greta patiently answered him.
“I see, what level is your mental energy and mana control skill at Greta?”
“Dude, you don’t ask those kinds of questions from people, it’s considered rude.” Philip as usual chimed in from the side.
“Oh, I didn’t know that, I’m sorry Greta.”
‘I knew it’s taboo to ask about a person’s class specifications, but didn’t know about this. I should go out more and socialise a little otherwise I’ll miss these small details of dos and don’ts of the society’
“It’s fine Markus, you don’t have to worry about it. I can tell you my stats, you’re my friend” Greta said while smiling. “I have 3 stars in [mana controlling] skill and 2 stars in mental energy”
“What? You already have 3 stars in mana controlling skill? How is that possible? How did you train your mana controlling skill?” Apis, who had been sulking suddenly erupted, startling everyone here.
“Dude! You too? Is that how you treat a friend? Geesh.” Having been scared out of his laze, rebuked Philip.
“Eh?” feeling a little bit awkward from his outburst Apis tried to apologise to Greta, “that… I didn’t mean it like that. I was just a little bit surprised, I was always practising my shaping skills around you guys but I never saw Greta practising, so…” before he could finish Philip butted in.
“So you thought how a normie could possibly surpass a genius at my level” Remarked Philip snidely from the side, again.
“That’s enough Philip, you're not helping…. Uh... it’s fine Apis, I know you didn’t mean it.” Greta is usually the shy quiet type among the three of them, but today she’s lecturing the two boys.
Angrily glaring at Philip, Apis seemed like he wanted to say something, but choked back his words upon hearing Greta’s words. He was a little bit angry at himself for stooping to the same level as Philip. He considers himself a genius, and when he heard Greta’s words he got a little unsettled. He knows that when his full potential is released he will be a peak genius throughout the whole continent and shouldn't worry about these little squabbles.
Snorting he sat down. ‘Cute’. “Really Greta, is there any kind of special training you did to get your mana controlling skill’s proficiency high?”. With all the bravado he had, he was still a little unsure whether he could get his skills up to the level his dad wanted and wanted to improve any way he can.
“Not really, if there is anything different from you guys, it would be that I train my mind, not mental energy per se. I know that mental energy is really hard to train and it’s mostly an inborn talent. But a senior at the society said that I could train my mind for better results and I think it really did.”
‘Training the mind?’ “What kind of exercises do you do?”.
“Revision, I guess. Well mostly I read as much as books and magical theory and spell models, that’s why that senior gave me that spell book also. Then while meditating I cast ‘mind focus’ on myself and try to remember as much of its content as possible. I think by training my mind, my control over mana increased.” Explained Greta.
Upon hearing Greta’s answer Apis didn’t look any happier than before. Markus knew why, Apis wasn’t one to read books, he was more of an action guy, Markus didn’t think he would last meditating, staying in one place.
Seeing Apis’s face, Greta also seemed to realise what Markus was thinking and tried to console him. “Maybe Apis what your father wanted to do was to set a goal high and have you pursue it, so that even if you don’t reach the goal you may end up in a better place than before.”
“You don’t know my father, he means what he says, no ambiguity behind what he says, he’s very direct straight to the point.” Apis grumbled.
Everyone seemed to quieten down after that, but before long everyone got back to their business again. Apis to his shaping exercises, Philip to his lazing around, Markus and Greta back to reading.
As it got darker Markus said farewell to his friends and walked back home. He had learned a lot today, new spells and discussing magic with Greta is also very useful, finally to top it all off a very much needed lesson on common knowledge. ‘I really seem to act like a reclusive shut-in more and more’.
‘But I really liked that idea of mental training Greta suggested, although my mental energy is already at 9 stars, it may come in handy further down the road. I’ll research the topic when I have time in the future.’ Markus was a little smug about his 9 star mental energy, only a little push and he’ll reach bronze level mental energy, it will be an improvement from his current iron rank mental energy.
But he wondered how long he could keep up his facade, and once he is caught his relationship with three youngsters will sour, they will maybe even hold a grudge against him. ‘Meh, I’ll think about it when the time comes too.’
Coming upon his home, he nodded to the two guards stationed outside his house and went in. As it was already dark the house was lit up with lights, while crossing the lawn Markus thought about what he should do first, eat or have a wash.
Just as he got closer to the main door of the house, he felt a wind behind him, a wind caressed his back, his whole body and it was not a normal kind of wind, he could feel it and it picked up speed, more and more. Suddenly Markus felt like he was in a huge storm, as the huge wind pushed him forward from his back lifting him from his feet.
‘Why is there such a fierce wind, is it even a wind?’ Markus panicked a little bit. This was surely not normal. There was not much on the lawn of his house, it had some small decorative plants but they were more like colourful bushes. So there weren’t any tall trees on the lawn area that Markus can take cover on.
The wind pushed him and carried him toward the front wall of the house, his feet off the ground and he was heading straight into a window, if he hit the window at this speed it would not be pleasant for him.
Was he under attack or was this some magical phenomenon that he didn’t know about? Steeling himself he cast [soul sense], it’s a skill not a spell, he had picked up because of his trait. It allows him to sense souls around him in a specific diameter.
‘There really is someone, and he is gaining on me fast. Shit’. He cursed to himself. What is even happening, he hadn’t provoked anyone in his stay here yet, maybe an enemy of his family or just some plain robber or something.
Whoever or whatever this is, he is in for a fight. The assailant was gaining on him fast, and he will be within his melee range quickly. Thinking of this, he brought his hands together in front of him, palm to palm, like in a prayer, and concentrated. His hands sticking together didn’t have any practical meaning to it, it just allowed him to focus more easily. Focusing, he started drawing mana from his own mana pool, then he directed them behind him to build a wall behind him, a mana shield.
It only took a second as a wall of mana appeared behind him giving off a bluish shine. It was rectangular in shape, had more width than height. But covered his back all the same fully, at least Markus hoped.
Done with that, still in the worshipping pose, he started manipulating his own gravitational energy. Now although the wind affecting him subdued, he was already in the air about 2 metres off the ground and going in fast towards the full glass windows. So he made himself as light as possible, this made him pick up even more speed, but as he hit the window nothing happened, it was like a piece of cotton floating in wind hitting the window.
Sliding on the window, he landed on the ground. Turning around quickly he checked for his assailant, he had gained more distance between them as he had hoped with him picking up speed, allowing him to catch a breath.
The assailant was dressed fully in dark, fully covered from head to toes, a dark coloured mask on his face only showing two slits for where the eyes should be, with a drawn-out sword in hand. Markus noticed that as the assailant neared him, he was not running towards him, he was in a stance of attack and he was sliding towards him keeping that stance and not running.
The assailant was very, very fast and Markus will be within his melee range soon, a situation which Markus very much liked to avoid. Holding both of his hands out ‘Omni push’, Markus released a force of gravity which pushed everything in front of him.
If he could focus just on the assailant, he could use ‘Solo push’. That will only affect the assailant and push him back. But the assailant is very fast and was not coming at him in a straight line, he was zig-zagging therefore hard to lock on to.
So Markus decided on ‘Omni push’. The torrential force of gravity went through the area even more fierce than the winds, leaving no way to avoid the wave. Just as he expected when the force of the wave went through him, the assailant couldn’t content with force and was thrown back, disoriented.
When the force wave died down the assailant was back on his feet. But without coming to attack him, he stood there observing a Markus.
‘All this commotion should have alarmed his people at the house now’ but he was not hearing anything, it is a bit worrying, what exactly is happening right now.
Just as he was about to shout out aloud and see whether anyone could hear him. His assailant started running toward him fast, not sliding like previously and jumped. While in air he started rotating on his own axis, perpendicular to the earth, generating a huge wind storm. All the wind in the area seemed to be aiding him as he started spinning faster and faster and building up momentum.
Zoooom. With a deafening boom it came at Markus, the power it had built up seemed substantial.
Seeing the incoming furious vortex of wind, he began to consider his options. Will a gravitation push like Omni push be enough? It seems to be carrying a huge amount of power. The tip of the vortex seems to be glittering, reflecting the light off of the sword at the front.
With a steeled mind he decided to face it head on. He activated a skill [Mana body]. Mana started coursing through his body furiously, stretching his mana channels to the limit, visible from the protruding nerves running all over his body. Clenching his teeth he held in the pain he felt throughout his whole body.
Like electricity running through his body, mana started to visibly run throughout his whole body. He started to glow blue, his hair floating upwards also glowing blue. Comparable to a man bathed in electricity.
Ignoring the pain he felt, he started concentrating on his right hand. Ambient mana and mana from his own mana pool started gathering on his right hand, it was chaotic at first but slowly started to take the form of a sphere. As more and more mana gathered inside the sphere it started radiating a heart palpating power.
Just as the assailant who is now a spinning storm of wind was upon him, Markus pushed his right hand toward the sword tip. The mana sphere which is at least one foot in diameter and spinning top collided.
Kaaachaaa. A deafening boom reverberated through the area, the glasses behind him shattered, ground beneath the explosion cracked and dipped. The grass beneath got destroyed.
With a scream the assailant was thrown away, he-no she sounded familiar.
“Ada?” ‘fuck’ cursing to himself he quickly tried to contain the mana without exploding outwards, it was not easy. The technique was already released, he couldn’t stop it, the mana is now out of his control, maybe he could direct the explosion away from Ada?
Quickly thinking he tried to push the explosion towards the ground, as Ada was being thrown away in the opposite direction of Markus.
‘The wind force in Ada’s attack is making my own turbid mana even more chaotic. Shit! Shit! Shit!’. Inside of the sphere that Markus released, mana was rotating in opposite directions in a balanced way and upon contact this balance is broken and a huge explosion is created. And now this force of destruction with Ada’s own force is going haywire.
Usually, when he releases the technique the explosion is going outward of him, that was how he created this technique. But now, if he lets this force explode outward Ada will surely get caught in it.
Mobilising his mental energy, he gathered the available ambient mana upon his hand and pushed downward, he pushed the force of the explosion to the ground.
“Ahhhhhhh!”. His right hand was now physically in the range of the chaotic force and it was shredding it. Blood was mixing with the force of energy, giving birth to a red coloured fog. The only reason his hand was not totally mangled was because the mana running throughout his body protected his flesh.
“Kaboom!”. Finally as the force of energy got compressed to the ground it exploded, throwing Markus away from the epicentre.
“Shit, my hand got fucked! I hope Ada is okay, what the hell is she even thinking, and why is nobody coming out. Goddammit it hurts.”
