Chương 44: SECRET REFINEMENT

Elias helped Miss Gable back inside, her trembling hand clutched in his small one, feigning exhaustion. Once she was settled with a cup of warm tea and a bewildered explanation to another maid about a "sudden flash of light," Elias retreated to the sanctuary of his own room. The door clicked shut, sealing him off from the mundane world, but his mind was anything but quiet. It raced, buzzing with the terrifying implications of "Flow Programming," the accidental power he had just wielded.

He pulled out his journal and began to write. The lightning strike. It had been real, devastatingly so for the snake, and utterly bewildering for Miss Gable. He decided to to experiment with this new ability of his. He didn't dare try to manifest these phenomena in the physical world again, not after the lightning incident. His calculations needed to be precise; otherwise, he'd end up messing things up and leaving himself utterly drained.

Instead, he retreated into his Spirit-Domain, transforming his internal universe into his personal workshop. As days went by, he would sneak away from his training withAina and delve into the boundless black expanse of his personal universe turned to a workshop where he sought to polish this ability. He started small, trying to manifest simpler phenomena that he could calculate. He put his hands together, focusing on generating heat. He recalled the principles of kinetic energy, the vibration of particles.

He would then have to come up with variables centered around the exact thing he wanted to create. It took some time. Normally, in textbooks, there would be numbers to show how much of each quantity was at play within the equation, so he now had to come up with these variables in order to fine-tune the workings, then infuse the ambient Flow within his domain with these precise parameters, willing it to coalesce into warmth. He struggled with precision. Nothing happened the first time.

He tried again the next day and was thrown back by the recoil of a grenade-like explosion. On the third day, he could only make a small spark fire, and on the fourth, a faint haze. He persisted. Fire was the most basic thing to understand, so he had to use it as a simple example to develop this technique. He tried several other times. Sometimes, a sudden, intense hotspot would flare in his domain, scorching the ethereal black water before quickly fading.

Other times, he'd attempt to conjure a small gust of wind, calculating pressure differentials and air movement. This often resulted in a minor, uncontrolled vortex swirling around him, or a violent internal current that buffeted his consciousness. By evening, he was exhausted, having finally gotten the rough outline of what to do. He made a few more notes, then dragged his tired body down for supper. After that, he went to the library and did some reading before falling asleep.

His mother, Elara, found him passed out while reading a book and gently picked him up and carried him back to his room. He woke up feeling a little bit fatigued but continued again the next day after training with Aina. The process of manifesting phenomena was agonizingly intricate. He drew deeply on his knowledge from his old world—fragments of basic physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics. He would first break down the desired phenomenon into its fundamental scientific components.

For some reason he could do this as naturally as breathing and would then define the various variables and parameters and simply use that to influence the Flow. Soon he took his experiments to the physical world. He would find a secluded space in a shed and attampted to manifest a fire with precise, calculated parameters, willing the Flow to manifest the effect. It was like writing lines of code in his mind, then running the program through his Flow. He theorized that this went beyond science.

If he could equally program, say, philosophy as well as science, he would be able to imitate Traits of the Cognitive or even Soulfire class. But for now, he was still experimenting with what he knew. He was able to create a fire but in his excitment he applied too much energy which caused the flames to flare out and almost spread to the surrounding area. He made himself scarce before anyone was alerted by the smoke. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Despite the secret experimentation, Aina's rigorous training continued. She remained tough on Elias, particularly focusing on Flow Infusion precision and Flow Suppression. She pushed him to infuse objects with the exact amount of Flow, to strengthen them without breaking. She drilled him endlessly on the techniques she'd taught him so far and forced him to apply them in their lessons.

Ironically, Aina's demands for greater Flow control and precision in her lessons inadvertently helped Elias refine the very skills needed for the manifestation of phenomena. Soon he could turn his experiments om himself. The thought made hims smirk a little causing him to lose control of the staff he was infusing with energy and causing it to break and earning him a smack at the back of the head. Aina herself noticed his rapid, almost uncanny, progress in these specific areas.

Internally, she was satisfied by him putting in the work. She attributed his progress to his vast Flow pool and natural aptitude, often commenting that she expected nothing less since he had Mellou blood, completely unaware of the true reason for his accelerated learning. Elias hoped that his 'sister' would give him some breathing room since he seemed to have improved himself but that was a delusion. Aina decided to push him harder, believing he had even more potential to unlock.

Elias became even more meticulous about his experiments now eing able to partially manifest the weapon he imagined from his previous world. He ensured he was truly alone before retreating to his domain and learned to mask his Flow signature even during his private practice, using his improved Flow Suppression. For some reason, he felt a constant low-level anxiety about being discovered. It was as if someone somewhere was monitoring his progress.

He would normally shake it off, but he knew of the existence of a being like Deus. Such a level of surveillance wasn't beyond the self-proclaimed god. These thoughts made Elias more cautious and cunning in his movements and actions.

"Part of why I'm learning this was to use it against the off-white bastard anyway. It's best I keep this a surprise." He worked on improving this technique every day for weeks. Then, as night fell, Elias, physically and mentally exhausted but buzzing with calculations and theories, finally climbed into his bed. He lay in the dark, his mind still working through the parameters for manipulating light, for generating a small, contained flame.

He stopped thinking for a bit and closed his eyes, picturing the vague Trait Sigil that hung above his Spirit-Domain, still obscured by the shimmering flakes of cosmic dust like clouds. He wondered what his true Trait was going to be if the first ability it granted him was the manifestation of phenomena. All this while, preparations were being made for his Seventh birthday, which was fast approaching.