Chương 30: Chapter 31: Arcane Affinity

Eran moved animatedly, his cane swinging in a wild arc of Walking Mountain. I was thoroughly familiar with the moves and was already on the move to fend him off. While my friend's techniques were executed near perfectly, they were predictable after months of practising together. I only had to wade through his attacks and find an opening to execute my blow perfectly. And that was exactly what happened.

I read my friend's moves like a book and dealt the blow when the opportunity presented itself, claiming victory and leaving him sprawled on the ground. Of course, this was merely sparring, but it still frustrated him. This was the fourth time in a row Eran tasted defeat. I could have let him claim a victory, noting he was having a bad day, but that would be wrong for both his and my own good. What was the point of training if not for improving ourselves?

"How do you do it?" he asked, sitting upright to spit.

"I trained as hard as you, perhaps even harder, and yet you defeat me using the most common moves." I considered my words and decided on a more technical answer than an emotional one, even though it was likely the latter my friend sought.

"You favour your right side more than your left," I told him.

"And you're predictable. You start with the first form, move to the third, but cut it in the middle when you find no opportunity, and then shift to the second. If you see any opening, you immediately push for the first form, and finally return to the third when you're on the back foot." Eran blinked, clearly unprepared for what I had to say. But I wasn't finished.

"You are too energetic, eager to win, and you push your all at the beginning, which leaves you restless and exhausted in the later part of the spar. That made it all the easier to deal the final blow."

"Is that all?"

"And you're predictable," I added.

"I think you already said that," he mumbled, though he didn't stop me as I continued.

"I read your body language and the way you move between stances. Since we both practise the same swordsmanship moves, it's easier for me to read them. And," I hesitated briefly, "you're so thoroughly invested in your own moves that you don't take the time to read mine." Eran wasn't bad. He was better than most at our age and could go head-on against anyone unawakened. Unfortunately for him, my mental attributes were beyond my years and the familiarity we'd built over so many years didn't help him in any way.

"I guess it all comes down to talent," he muttered, his shoulders slumping.

"That's not it," I began but faltered. I realised that wasn't what he wanted to hear. I didn't yet know what constituted talent, nor the distinction between it and hard work, to give him a straight answer.

"Maybe that's the difference," my friend sighed. He was not the brooding type, but these spars had never been even a bit entertaining for him.

"I guess it would be a miracle if I could ever make it past being a town guard, much less an..." He bit his tongue, leaving the words hung on the air.

"Townguard?" I turned to him, incredulous.

"Isn't your dream to become a knight?" On many occasions, I had seen Eran exhibit his admiration towards knights. I, too, had idolised them for a long time. I mean, who wouldn't? Heroic figures in shining armour, fighting monsters to protect common folk. What wasn't there to like? Their valour, their sacrifice, and the songs about them were all too fascinating to ignore.

"Don't kid," he cracked a laugh, clenching his fist.

"My desire to become a knight is similar to my desire to defeat you in a fair fight."

"Well, you've defeated me before," I said. He used to best me fairly before my awakening. That was months ago when he had a huge advantage in physical attributes.

"And did you forget? I've awakened."

"But you are a Shaper," Eran argued, bent on looking down on himself.

"Your physical power didn't improve, and you do not use your magical ones during our spar."

"Bah!" I snorted.

"Did you forget about my mental attributes? I am so beyond you that I can practically see your moves from miles away." Magically speaking, that wasn't completely true, but it was a slight exaggeration of what my mental attributes provided me with.

"If you think about it, it was no less than bullying you with my huge advantage." Eran frowned. He had not considered that aspect at all, but he was still not fully convinced.

"Do you know how many points I have in Cognition and Split Focus?" I asked.

"Split focus?"

"It's an advanced attribute that lets me—well, you guessed it—split my focus," I explained.

"And I have 57 points in it."

"57?!" Eran's mouth remained hung open.

"How did you get so many points?"

"Meditation and mostly Essence Sense. You already know I'm at the ninth layer of meditation... and not too far in Essence Sense either."

"It can't be all about attributes, though," he mumbled.

"I don't know about that." Eran snorted.

"Admit it. You were better at it than me from day one. You defeated Priam in a spar even before your father taught you."

"That was..." I mumbled, "different."

"Different how?" he pressed. I could barely recall the electrifying feeling of that day. The fleeting moment remained in my mind, like a winter morning shrouded in fog and mist. I had not yet managed to tap into that feeling ever again. Sometimes, I could feel it in my arm—an itch at my palm—but I could never fully grasp it again. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Was that what was called talent?

Eran lay back on the ground, his eyes wandering to the spiralling clouds.

"My Da did not want me to learn swordsmanship, you know." I turned to Eran, surprised.

"He wants me to live the honest life of a farmer. It took a long time for Ma and me to convince him to even let me learn swordsmanship from your Da. But I don't think he'd ever let me join the army or any guild."

"Do you want to join the army?" I frowned.

"Or a guild?"

"I don't know, maybe," he said, closing his eyes.

"It's what my Da did. I don't understand why he won't let me do the same, especially since that's exactly what he did after his awakening." I wanted to say something meaningful, something that might ease the weight on his shoulders. He was too young to bear these thoughts. But I didn't know what to say. Eran had a good relationship with his father, something I was barely beginning to have with my own. I worried that anything I said might do more harm than good.

"What about squiring under a knight?" I asked.

"You kid again."

"I'm not," I told him.

"Father thinks you can do it too." Eran perked up at that. Like many things he learned from his Da, Eran seemed to have inherited the respect towards my father from him too.

"He said that?" he asked, rising, his eyes gleaming with hope. I nodded.

"But I cannot even defeat you."

"Oh, you think I'm easily beatable?" I spared him a lopsided grin.

"No?" I was not fully convinced of my own capabilities, but it didn't stop me from acting a bit pompous.

"You saw me almost defeat Priam, without any formal training. Now, I finally know my way around swords. What do you think his chances are of defeating me?" Eran was unsure about the answer, but he wasn't stupid enough to think it would be a completely one-sided battle if I fought Priam. And he still wasn't seeing how good he was at it, either.

"I think you need to spar with others to see how good you are," I told him.

"Additionally, you need to work on your strategy some more. And I know exactly how."

"Please tell me it's not something stupid," Eran said, scrunching his nose.

"It's always something stupid whenever you make that face!"

"What face? It only sounds stupid, but it isn't," I told him. Eran still didn't seem fully convinced, so I told him what it was.

"What you need to do is begin journalling." His face couldn't be any more livid.

Before I completed all four elemental shaping ways, I actually managed to finish a way that had been a pain in my back. [Congratulations! Way of Swimming I (100/100) is complete.] [+2 Agility Points.] [Way of Swimming II (100/1000) is now accessible.] Swimming was not the bane of my existence. I could swim pretty well, trust me. It took so long only because there was no good place to practise the way. We have the river, but its current was too wild to swim in.

People had literally died there in unfortunate accidents. There were a few ponds, a couple owned by the Stonecutters to fetch water to the fields. Father had brought me along every day for over a week in a row to finally complete the way. To make the most of it, I practised Water Shaping along with swimming, finishing the second layer of Water Shaping, only second to Kinetic Force, which I practised religiously, hoping it would help me fly.

It might take me years, and the combined power of Kinetic Force and Telekinesis to make it happen, but hard work never seemed to dissuade me. [Congratulations! Way of Water Shaping II (25/25) is complete.] [+2 Unallocated Points.] [Way of Water Shaping III (25/50) is now accessible.] Fire was still the easiest in both conjuring and shaping the already-lit flame. I also found my control over it was finally growing towards dangerous territory as I completed the way. I could form an unstructured fireball spell.

Although I didn't believe the spell was anywhere near powerful enough to defeat those monstrous centipedes we encountered on our way back from Klearon, it should be imposing enough to ward them off for a moment. [Congratulations! Way of Fire Shaping II (25/25) is complete.] [+2 Unallocated Points.] [Way of Fire Shaping III (25/50) is now accessible.] While I was practising my shaper skills, I didn't miss any Essence Unification sessions.

I had reached a point where I could divide my focus to push the essence throughout my channels for hours. Usually, I would read a book, write with my wrong hand, or do other low-effort, pleasant things while practising Unification on the inside. But of course, my shaping skills consumed so much Will that I couldn't practise it for more than four hours per day. [Congratulations! Way of Ambi-dexterity I (100/100) is complete.] [+2 Alacrity Points.] [Way of Ambi-dexterity II (100/1000) is now accessible.] A hundred hours of practising with my left arm barely put me on the pedestal of not feeling awkward during practice. I could write in straight lines with only a little attention to it, but I never managed to win against Eran using my left as the leading arm. Even small mistakes became fatal. During my Earth Shaping practice, I decided to spend time with Eran while helping him with ploughing. Earth shaping wasn't efficient in the least.

I could literally do four times the amount of ploughing if I used the small-sized plough. But of course, the Stonecutters didn't need me or their son working in the field, they were wealthy enough. We were merely doing it to complete our ways. Eran was working on his Way of Cultivation, and mine was pretty obvious. Unsurprisingly, I received the Way of Cultivation too on the very first day.

It was a three-layered way, which I thought I could at least complete the first two layers of if I kept on with it in the coming year.

"Father said he'll let me have this side to cultivate whatever I want next season," Eran said, pointing towards the half-acre of land.

"What are you going to grow?" I asked, using my essence threads to pry open the softened earth.

"Lettuce," Eran said, having already thought about it.

"Hmm, I'll help you with ploughing," I told him, still at it. Eran spared a glance at my work as a grin split his lips.

"Sorry, but I do not have the whole season to wait for you to finish ploughing."

"Hey, I do very precise work," I told him, pointing at the straight rows of ploughed land, all of them almost perfectly parallel. On the other hand, Eran had ploughed five times as much as me. Although his rows were not as neat as mine, he would be finishing the rest of it in two days.

"I can help with irrigation too," I said.

"Besides, by next season, my capability will rise to such a degree that I won't lose out to your stupid plough."

"Hmm," Eran cocked his head and agreed, "that I don't doubt, but are you sure you want to continue—" The spell's voice blurred my friend's words. I jumped to my feet. [Congratulations! Way of Earth Shaping II (25/25) is complete.] [+2 Unallocated Points.] [Way of Earth Shaping III (25/50) is now accessible.] [Congratulations! You have met all the requirements for an Advanced Attribute.] [Attribute gained: Arcane Affinity (Advanced)] [+2 Arcane Affinity] For the shortest moment, I endured the impaling pain as though something jagged had pierced my core. The sensation was gone as soon as it came, replaced by a surge of essence, causing me to let out a whimper.

"Arilyn?"

"Umm, sorry," I said, channelling the power in the way of Essence Unification to calm it down.

"Did you just complete your training?"

"Yeah, and it got me an advanced attribute!" I could feel something had changed in me, though not in the way Fortitude changed my body. It was only when I began to draw my essence to shape earth that I felt it. Somehow moulding my will on the soil became so much easier.

"Wow!" Eran jumped closer to me.

"Congrats! What attribute did you get?"

"The spell says Arcane Affinity," I muttered, then pushed all my eight threads into the earth and yanked. The ground split open with a hole twice the size of my usual ploughing, sending bits of soil flying.

"Looks like we won't even have to wait for next season."