Chương 16: Lines of Energy

Ren walked to the center of the inn's backyard, shifting his posture immediately. The relaxed smile vanished from his features, giving way to the surgical focus of a strategist.

"Stealth requires absolute focus," Liora Valtain explained, positioning herself a few meters from him.

"If you exude intent or distraction, the enemy's Internal Mana will vibrate, and they will detect you. Turn your back. Try to guess where my strike will come from." Ren nodded, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to clear his thoughts and read the environment's currents through his new mana perception. Liora moved. To the ordinary eye, she simply vanished from the map. There was no sound of footsteps on the dirt, not the slightest displacement of air. Clang.

The pommel of Liora's katana lightly tapped the back of Ren's neck. He hadn't even perceived her approach from behind.

"You are calculating the space with your mind, but your body is blocking the flow," Liora commented, retreating with perfectly fluid and silent movements.

"Again." Ren spent the next hour being hunted and lightly struck in the yard, silencing his ordinary instincts to learn how to erase his own presence. When his leg muscles protested from exhaustion and his breathing grew heavy, Liora sheathed her weapon with a sharp click, indicating that the first phase of the day was concluded. Without wasting time, Ren walked over to the rustic wooden table where the Neko girl waited for him in silence.

"Your turn, Mireya," Ren said, approaching the eighteen-year-old demi-human.

"Teach me how to extract the essence of these plants correctly." Mireya Solen adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose, her cat ears twitching subtly at his proximity. Her face flushed a light shade of red, but when her eyes locked onto the vials and herbs, her posture shifted into that of a focused expert. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Most human alchemists just crush the leaves and hope a random reaction happens," Mireya began, stepping into her technical comfort zone.

"To create a real solution, you need to decompose the elements. Look at this common healing leaf. If you use your perception, you will see that the energy is concentrated in the microscopic glands of the root. The rest is just useless fiber." Ren closed his eyes and focused his mystical vision on the sprout resting on the wood. The world split into particles and lines of blue and golden light before him.

He extended his bandaged fingers, letting a minimal amount of that cold, dense Void Mana envelop the plant, weaving it with the normal flow of nature. Upon touching the root, Ren's mana acted like a surgical scalpel. He separated the pure compounds from the dirt's impurities at a molecular level, guided by the perfect structure he could clearly see. The liquid inside the glass vial began to bubble, turning from a dull green to a brilliant, dense crystalline hue, exuding an aura of flawless purity.

All of it achieved without using solvents or fire to distill. Mireya took a step back, her cat tail whipping the air in pure shock as she stared at the perfect vial.

"This... this is impossible," she stammered, her face blushing even deeper upon realizing the absurd dexterity of this sixteen-year-old boy.

"You simply ordered the elements to fuse in the exact amount. What kind of prodigy are you?" Ren tucked the perfect vial into his shirt pocket, returning to his charismatic and relaxed social mask.

"I am just a dedicated student, my dear master," Ren inclined his head slightly, sustaining her feline gaze with a discrete flirt.

"With such an incredible teacher, it would be an insult to deliver anything less than perfection." Mireya turned her face away quickly, her ears flattened against her head in sheer shyness, while Selene watched from afar with a visibly pouting expression and Liora merely nodded in approval at the boy's energy control. Behind his light smile, Ren's thoughts operated coldly across the chessboard of his mind. The wallet has dropped to ten silver coins, but the investment was well worth it, Ren calculated.

Liora's stealth has been comprehended. Mireya's molecular alchemy mastered on the first attempt. My Void energy can bend the rules of this world. The party is responding perfectly to the stimuli of affection. Next step: secure an urgent mission at the guild to fill our pockets with gold before the money runs out.