Chương 98: B2 Chapter 19

Astrid didn't react at first. Her expression remained unchanged, though that only lasted for a few heartbeats. Her countenance changed and she pressed her lips together as the first wave of discomfort surged through her. Then, as Hakon's mana coursed through his mate's pathways, Astrid's cheeks burned bright.

"Do you want to stop?" Hakon asked, even if he knew the answer. Astrid shook her head, her eyes furiously staring into the nothingness ahead. Moving onward, he willed his mana through the larger pathways first. He focused on the main paths for a little while until the first obstacle blocked the road ahead. Hakon considered breaking it down by compressing his mana. Cracking the obstacle, shattering it into oblivion, was likely possible, but would the Ancestors accept this much support?

Unsure and not willing to risk Astrid's future, he charged the obstacle only once, cracking even the firmest structures – likely representing the oldest and most resilient impurities. Once that was done, Hakon noticed a Scripture, which he promptly ignored. Focusing on [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Sense], he split the mana coursing through Astrid's pathways and guided it into the smaller pathways.

She either hadn't noticed the pathways yet or failed to control the mana within them precisely enough to do the same just yet, because Astrid responded drastically to that. She began to writhe in pain and let out groans of discomfort. Then, as a familiar putrid scent filtered into the vicinity, she froze up.

"No!" Astrid yelped and leaped to her feet. Hakon barely got to react in time, expelling the mana within her pathways before finally losing control. That too hurt a little, which was surprising. He did not expect losing control of the mana outside his body could be this painful. Distracted, he didn't pay much attention to Astrid's antics. Hakon only caught Ava stepping up as his mate panicked, conjuring a bubble of water and hurling it at Astrid.

One moment, Astrid was panicking, and in the next she stood there drenched, water flowing down her arms, dragging the dark, putrid mass oozing from her skin to the ground.

"Not enough? This is a lot more difficult to control than expected." Ava muttered to herself before conjuring another water bubble in her hand. She regarded Astrid for a moment, who only stared back. No word was exchanged, yet, to Hakon, it felt like the two women spoke a language of their own with their gazes. His mate stayed where she was as Ava got closer, her hand holding the water bubble raised to press against her skin.

Astrid's eyes widened as the impurities still sticking to her fell off her body as soon as the water bubble came into contact with them. They floated in the bubble, which slowly turned dark as more and more impurities gathered. When Hakon was finally back to his senses, his head no longer throbbing like crazy from losing control of so much mana, Astrid was still drenched. But she no longer looked panicked nor was she smelly in any way. No more impurities clung to her like pesky leeches.

"What was that?" Astrid finally asked Ava, but the Mage Apprentice only conjured crackling lightning in her left hand while her right still carried the tainted water.

"Magic." Hakon gasped, licking his lips in utter excitement. Ava nodded and turned to him but looked like a deer caught in torchlight as soon as she detected the greed in his eyes.

"Like Eren." Astrid nodded seriously.

"Are you a… Water– No… a Stormcaller?" Stormcallers were as rare as legendary Powers. But they were not as celebrated as physical Ancient Powers, let alone legendary Powers. However, they were also not as frowned upon as Lightcallers because of the power they wielded. Hakon was fairly sure he remembered that most Stormcallers of the past had been taken in by the Shamans.

"She is a Mage Apprentice." Hakon explained to his mate.

"Similar to Eren but stronger. She can make constructs of mana as well."

"Like you?" Her brows furrowed ever so slightly at that and she glared at Ava.

"I... Well, yes." Ava acknowledged hesitatingly.

"But Mages and Mage Apprentices study magic for a long time before we dare use it. Hakon uses magic differently. More… brutally. I…I don't like fighting that much. I like research much more."

"Weak." Astrid clicked her tongue.

"Why not fight? You can summon a storm's heart." Hakon hadn't seen Ava use lightning before. If he had, he would have asked a lot more questions. Maybe, he would have learned all there was about lightning. Can I infuse lightning into [Mana Bolt]? What would happen if I do that? Hakon wondered, though he first had to figure out if he could wield lightning like Ava. Initially, he had other plans, but was there anything better than throwing lightning bolts around?

"Teach that to me." Hakon demanded, which earned him a curious look from Astrid and a hesitant one from Ava.

"You want to learn [Arc] and [Bubble] as well? When… When are you going to teach me more?" The hesitation in her eyes made way for defiance and irritation. In a way, it looked like she wanted to defy him for asking for more and more while also going back on his own promise. But that was not his intention. Not exactly, at least.

"I do," Hakon said truthfully.

"But I will teach you first. You will learn [Circulation] and later on [Weapon Mastery]. Or Mastery of whatever weapon you prefer." This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Ava may not like fighting, and she most certainly did not like shedding blood, but she would have to do both if she still wanted to return to the Alliance. The human woman seemed both pleased and conflicted by his words, but that was fine.

"I help." Astrid stepped forward.

"You want to help her?" Hakon raised an eyebrow at that. He was sure his mate disliked Ava, but maybe he had been wrong about that. Then again, Ava blanched at the prospect of his mate helping her.

"Keep me clean when I use [Flow Control] during our training." She leaned closer to Ava and muttered something Hakon didn't quite catch. Surprisingly enough, Ava didn't pull back. She even met Astrid's eyes and nodded seriously before his mate added, "In return, I help you train."

"But she asked me to help." Hakon grumbled in dissatisfaction. He would not stop training Ava, for he promised to teach her in exchange for her support. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it when Astrid stared down at him like death incarnate.

"Silence," she hissed, allowing no rebuttal.

[Scripture of Improvement Teaching Lv. 16 → Lv. 17] Once they 'discussed' who was going to train Ava and how much they would train together – Astrid wanted to join their sessions, transforming their one-on-one training into a three-way session – Hakon had more time to focus on himself. Astrid and Ava could help each other well enough, though that did not mean he would stand around uselessly. He helped Astrid with [Flow Control] by using his own mana at first.

He used less mana as the session progressed until Astrid had to activate [Flow Control] to replace his mana with hers. At that point, Hakon influenced her only subtly. Initially, he reached out to her mana directly, guiding her slowly just like Barbarian children were taught to wield weapons and move. It didn't take long before Hakon retracted his influence until it was only subtle, not unlike Enhanced Comprehension, which he'd used as a guideline. [Teaching] was not supposed to give the students all the answers.

It was guidance that offered one possible solution while also offering other options. At times, he removed [Teaching]'s influence entirely, showing Astrid how much she had improved on her own, but her progress stagnated by that point. No matter how smart Astrid was for a Barbarian, the old ways were still engraved on her mind. They had become bad habits, which had to be hammered out slowly, one step at a time. Hammering those habits out was also how Hakon intended to train Ava.

His mate used force, brutal yet efficient, to crush Ava and hammer out her greatest problems. The fear of pain was a major problem, for one. Then there was her physique. Like the other humans, she was frail. Ava had improved somewhat since regaining freedom, but her physique was nowhere near strong enough to keep up with the younger Barbarians. Said Barbarians hadn't even undergone their Rite yet, which Ava clearly had. The human version, at least, Hakon had begun to believe, was different.

Else she wouldn't have mentioned the term "Class" from time to time, nor would she consider herself a Mage Apprentice, as if it was something special. Be that as it may, Astrid had her fun tort–… training Ava, while Hakon sat back focusing on his next project. A project that did not involve calling upon storms. Yet. He closed his eyes and focused on the spirit form once more. Since the 2nd Ascension, Hakon's spirit had grown considerably.

Quite a lot had changed, which included some shifts in the cluster of weaves he'd been focusing on. The cluster he wanted to focus on revolved around six Skills. Precisely, it had revolved around five Skills before the ascension, which had now been updated to a cluster of six, completing the process in a way. One Skill that connected them all had been missing. A single Skill that should help transform the cluster into something much greater than the sum of its five or six parts.

[Magical Warhammer] was the Skill in question, and it had been added to [Mana Shaping], [Compression], [Reinforcement], [Mana Bolt], and [Mana Shield]. [Mana Shaping]'s weave was at full capacity. The fragile weave was bursting with energy and only waiting for one of two events. The first was to be upgraded. Hakon felt like he would have no problem upgrading either [Mana Manipulation] or [Mana Shaping] as long as he pushed them to their limits.

Doing so felt wrong though, partially because Enhanced Comprehension told him so. Truth be told, his Ancient Power did not tell him to stop upgrading the Skill. However, upgrading [Split Focus] and [Combat Awareness] from Common Skills to Uncommon Skills had changed the Skills tremendously. [Split Focus]'s changes were minor yet apparent enough for him to notice that its weave was no longer as fragile. The same could not be said about [Combat Awareness].

Upgrading the Skill had removed it from one of the smaller, loosely connected clusters Hakon had planned to focus on later on. [Combat Awareness] was no longer connected to any of the more fragile weaves, and it did not look like it could be reconnected. It was almost like the Skill's path had been decided with the Upgrade and that it could no longer be changed. That was curious. However, it also showed Hakon what could happen if he upgraded [Mana Manipulation] or [Mana Shaping] before they were fused.

Fusing them with other Skills would be much harder since only the frailest and smallest of weaves appeared to be easy to modify. Or, and that wasn't all that unlikely either, Hakon was not proficient enough at moving the strands of the larger weaves. One way or another, it looked like it would be much harder to work with one larger weave, let alone multiple ones. Hence, upgrading a Skill needed for another Skill Fusion would shatter all the unique paths that would have been possible if they hadn't been upgraded.

At least, that was what he told himself. Maybe he was wrong. It was not all that unlikely to be wrong considering how little he knew about magic, mana, weaves, and Skill Fusions. Nonetheless, it felt wrong to upgrade his Common Skills, especially with how malleable they were. Their paths had not yet been decided. With that in mind, Hakon chose to treat [Magical Warhammer] not as a Skill that created mana constructs like [Mana Shield] or [Mana Bolt].

It would become something much more with all the spirit energy the weave would generate from all the Levels he had yet to earn. The Skill was barely Level 2, meaning he had the spirit energy of 18 level-ups to turn it into something entirely different. Into the heart of the six-Skill cluster, for example. That should work. But the connection between [Mana Shield] and [Mana Bolt], and the other Skills needs to be refined a little as well. Hakon mused inwardly, preparing himself mentally for a hard workout.

He had a lot of Skills to improve if he wanted this to turn out well. And then, at some point, he could finally put some time aside to focus on the Will of Momentum. Probably. Hopefully.